No Tendo
by Greylle
Summary: a story by myself and Kender Sci which takes place in a timeline which has been completely SNAFUed but oddly works.
1. Chapter 1

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_SciDISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

* * *

"The multiverse is composed of roughly one times ten to the five hundredth power universes in each mainline," informed the Being to his audience. "In those other universes you will often see reflections of another reality. The same world, or close to it. An individual of one mainline can often be found in the various realities bordering the other mainline."

"Analogues," said the apprentice to indicate she understood and remembered her lessons. "The reflection of one being in another reality. The same person, yet different due to the situations of that upbringing. Yes, I understand, Elder."

"The problem I wish you to study," said the Elder, "is in this reality. A disturbance along these branches here caused a mass merger within this timeline."

"It looks... odd," said the apprentice.

* * *

In another world, another time, Soun Tendo and Genma Saotome studied martial arts under a master named Happosai. Eventually they engaged their children before either actually had any children to engage.

Here it was different.

The Tendo engagement never occurred because Soun Tendo never studied under Happosai. Soun studied under a lesser Master, and the Tendo School Of Martial Arts followed an entirely different path as a result.

Genma had met Soun Tendo, but there was no shared suffering and laboring under a crazed loon. Genma labored alone and suffered alone. One day he was injured in the course of following the dread Master and ended up meeting someone different. In repayment, the engagement pledge came into play though with a very different participant.

* * *

It had been a long day for Genma, just like all the others he had been through since he had begun training. Promises of fast learning and great power had lured him into it, and he had once had dreams that he would become a great martial artist without having to curb what he didn't want to. But it proved to be otherwise, as the Master had proven to be rather harsh, uncaring and petty, with appetites that he expected his student to provide for.

And once again he had left his student to deal with his actions.

This time Happosai had taken the cake, both literally and figuratively. He had crashed the reunion of a group of young women who'd attended an all girls' high school, which gave him the opportunity to get all three of his favorite things. The diminutive pervert had groped and fondled each woman before taking all the liquor and food that he could carry. Plus, on his way out, he had 'visited' some other female patrons of the resturant that the party had been taking place.

Leaving his sole student with the 'responsibility' of getting whatever he could of what was left, and to act as a buffer between his Master and the righteous indignation of the assaulted women.

Needless to say, Genma had gotten out of their as quickly as he could. Grabbing what he could, as he knew that he would recieve his Master's displeasure if he didn't, the martial artist ran as fast as his legs could carry him. With Happosai's cackling in front of him, he knew which direction to go, but the women behind him provided the impetus. They were all deeply pissed, and very vocal about their intentions as they wielded improvised weapons of blunt force trauma. As he didn't want to get hurt, he dashed away, trying to lose them as he went, going so far to leap over a guard rail.

Unfortunately, the barrier had been put there so that people would not fall down the steep hill behind it. Tumbling down the slope, he came to a stop using one foot that slammed into the ground with a pain that shot up from his thigh to his chest. Getting up was difficult due to some aches and pains, but as he tried to stand, he realised that he had sprained his ankle and dropped his ill gotten gains.

Not wanting to face either his Master, or the angry women he could hear in the distance, he hobbled off as quickly as he could. It wasn't fast, but he wanted to put as much distance between him and his pursuers as possible. So he stuck to the shadows and tried to weave a chaotic path so that none of them would be able to follow him.

But he was sore, tired, and hungry, all of which caught up with him more quickly as he would have liked. Soon he was stumbling around and going only by sheer will. He got a burst of energy from that, and he used it immediately. However, that could only take him so far, and as he got into one corner, he found his legs giving out on him and sending him crashing to the ground.

"There he is!" called out a female voice.

That sent chills down his spine and he tried to huddle against the expected blows.

Except that the next voice to speak was male. "It is him, and he doesn't look so good."

"He hasn't been drinking, has he?" the woman asked.

"No... It looks like he's taken a fall of some kind. Not life threatening, but it couldn't have been fun."

"The poor dear..."

"Very poor, by the looks of him."

Genma felt himself being rolled over by masculine hands and looked up to see a blond man with glasses kneeling over him. "Who... who are you?"

"My name is Souichi Tomoe, and this is my wife," the man told him, gesturing up at the pretty dark haired woman next to him. "And you are..?"

"Genma Saotome."

"Well then Genma, what happened? How'd you end up like this?"

"I'm a martial artist, and I've been training under a sensei, but he got me into trouble... again, and so..."

"I see... It does explain the outfit. Still, you're coming with us."

"I am?"

"Yes, you are. You need to get better, and we're going to do it," Souichi told him with a grin, "And my wife will kill me if I leave you to suffer like this."

"Why you!" she commented good naturedly.

"Heh. Now let's get you to our house..."

Dazed and confused, Genma allowed himself to be brought to the house. Once there, he found himself in a well to do home, and a place where he was allowed to rest and relax. He got to know the couple, and enjoyed their company, especially since he got good care at that point.

Over the time he was with them, he grew so close that he couldn't help but feel gratitude towards them. And he felt that there was only one way to thank them for this.

He broached the engagement idea, and after a little convincing, got them to agree to it.

And even when he left their home, he remembered it.

* * *

_A few years later:_  
"Of course I came to see the baby. Well when I heard..." Genma's voice trailed off as he felt something.

He had trained long and hard with the Master. He had developed the three ways of the thief, two of which he'd sealed after that problem with Kumon - resulting in the third path. He had turned his path away from that of Happosai, vowing not to follow the path of his Master. In this last he was somewhat successful.

Professor Tomoe turned away from his wife to see the portly martial artist staring at Hotaru. "Is something wrong?"

"Dear kami, what a chi to find in a child..." mumbled Genma.

"She's just hungry," said Mrs Tomoe, getting a bottle and heading over to feed the newborn.

"Saotome-san?" Professor Tomoe said, a little concerned now.

Genma blinked as the monstrous eruption of chi vanished. Or had it been something similar to chi, now back to slumbering? One thing was certain though. The arrangement he'd made with Tomoe-sensei was definitely a good one. "Pardon me. I was merely admiring the child's healthy set of lungs."

Mrs Tomoe seemed to accept that while the Professor seemed skeptical.

"Pardon," said Genma. "The boy is only two years old now and I'd best get back. No telling what mischief he's into at this point."

* * *

Genma smiled as he went home. He was working out details yet of the third school, the Way Of The Silent Thief and the Way Of The Noisy Thief had proven to have their problems, while the Way Of The Observant Thief seemed to have less day-to-day application but more potential.

Genma began considering the new wrinkle. Ranma would be trained to be the best martial artist possible, yet for a baby less than a month old to produce such a chi...

It was like finding a newborn lion cub that produced a roar like an earthquake. Firefly? More like a sleeping dragon!

Ranma would have to meet the girl. Be allowed to play with her. Get acquainted while still young. Perhaps some lessons to the child as well. It was doubtful, being a girl, that she'd ever reach the heights of mastery. With that kind of chi, some lessons in control might keep her from accidently burning herself out.

Genma was guessing, and he hadn't quite put behind his upbringing and experiences with Happosai, but he was trying.

* * *

For several years, Genma had trained the boy quite well in his own estimation. The boy had started off only being eager to learn, and had grown quickly into a skilled fighter for his age. There was still quite a long way to go, but he was certain that the boy would eventually become a superb martial artist, and the best around.

Not that he'd forgotten the arrangement he'd made with his friends. His son had made friends with the little child, and had become attatched to her. Which was exactly what his father wanted, and so the elder man was pleased by the progress his plan was making. Even though they only made quick stops on occasion, the boy looked foward to them, and he was certain that she did as well.

Even now, while on the road, the Tomoes and he kept in contact with each other, sending messages to keep each other up to date with how things were going.

Such as was the case at the moment.

Not that he was pleased by what he'd just heard.

However, he had decided that he couldn't run from this, and had to go face it.

Which meant immediately stopping the training and heading back to Tokyo.

* * *

"I don't know how this could happen," Professor Tomoe said as he sat in his chair, "Keiko was the only woman I've ever wanted to be with. How could she be taken away like this?"

Genma pressed his lips into a thin line. "I am sorry for your loss, but such things do happen. I wish they didn't, but they do. The only thing to do is to be there for your daughter."

"Hotaru... She's never going to know her mother, you know."

"Yes, but you can tell her all about her."

"It's not the same."

"I know," the portly man agreed, "But life isn't always fair. All we can do is to keep on going, and deal with the loss as best we can."

Souichi snorted. "I'm not sure I can ever really do that."

"Try. And you won't have to do it alone."

"I won't?"

"No, you won't. Ranma and I'll stay here to assist you as best we can."

"But what about the training?" the professor asked.

"We can train right here. And if we need to, we'll just take a trip. Besides, the boy needs to learn how to adapt to changing circumstances."

"Thank you."

"Don't worry about it. What are friends for?" Genma asked, already pondering how he could work things out, though the coming luxuries of indoor living made it easier, while another conversation was taking place nearby.

* * *

Ranma was five years old to Hotaru's three. He wasn't sure what to make of the little girl bawling her eyes out.

Genma watched Ranma for a few moments before joining his son. "Not a thing you can do at the moment, son. Let her be."

Ranma nodded, still wanting to do something but not sure what.

Genma thought it time for more philosophy, and as he had decided to pursue an anti-Happosai stance - went that route. "Son, what is the duty of a martial artist?"

"Ta be able to kick butt?" asked Ranma.

"Yes, that's... no that's not quite it," said Genma. "To protect yourself but especially those who can't otherwise do it themselves. Someday I hope you'll be protecting Hotaru there."

Ranma frowned in thought. "I'm supposed to protect her?"

"Yes, son," said Genma, not mentioning marriage or anything else. Keep it simple for now, use vague and general terms so Ranma could understand. "She's going to grow up into someone important and will need your help. Sometimes, like now, you can't do anything. Other times you'll be there for her and she'll need your strength."

Ranma brightened. It sounded like some new technique was on the schedule. "Okay!"

"Now," said Genma, figuring a distraction might help, "let's see about practicing your blocks."

* * *

Time passed. Ranma grew stronger and Genma continued vague predictions of Hotaru being important in the future. (He still avoided mentioning how or why, which to his mind would be a continuation of the school.) Because the two showed signs of becoming friends, some time for the two to play together was scheduled amongst the training.

Genma couldn't help some old habits, and it was the training he was familiar with. Ranma would have to get away from civilization to up the training level. Not to mention avoid some legal entanglements.

Still, Genma couldn't help but hide in the shadows and smile as the two children began a new game in the yard, trying to picture the two grown.

The smile faded as he saw a flicker of something else, that monster chi hiding within the frail girl.

Clearly he needed to find new techniques, focussing on control and mastery of chi. Perhaps some meditation and discipline techniques. The Way Of The Observant Thief had shown him a different path than the Way Of The Noisy Thief or the Way Of The Silent Thief. Perhaps...

* * *

It was lucky for Genma that he had managed to get his skills to the point where he could stand out in the clear and still manage to be unseen. That was helpful in not only battle situations as it allowed him to watch people without having to worry about interrupting them. Though in this case, it was much easier as these were children, and other than a bit of training, and some special chi, they were normal kids, who acted their ages most of the time.

So he was able to see as they sat together and did something slightly suprising.

"What's this?" Hotaru asked.

"It's a way to make an extra special promise remember?" Ranma told her, and held out a single finger.

She held out her own finger. "I do."

"Good." He hooked his pinky around hers and tried to look as serious as a kid his age could. "Now, I promise that I'll always protect ya."

"You will..?"

"Yup. I'm gonna protect ya no matter what."

"Then I'll protect you too!"

"Huh?"

"We're friends, right?" Hotaru told him. "So I've gotta protect you too!"

"I don't think it's supposed ta go that way..."

"Why not?! I'm going to do it!"

Rubbing the back of his head with his free hand, the pigtailed boy shrugged. "If ya wanna..."

The smile she gave him in return was bright.

That put him off balance for a moment, but he quickly regained his center. "I guess ya do..."

"Yes!"

"Oh well," he said, "I guess that settles that. So... ya wanna get back ta the game."

"Sure!"

Genma watched the two children get up and run off, and wondered what he should make of it. The idea that his son was stepping up to his responsibilites was a good on. But that the girl had insisted on reciprocating the promise was surprising. She was after all younger, smaller and weaker, though if that dormant chi was ever tapped into, she would be a force to be reckoned with. At the moment however, all he could read into this was that Hotaru had decided that she would be just like her friend.

Not that it was such a terrible thing in the elder Saotome's regard.

* * *

They spent four months there before Ranma and Genma parted company with the Tomoe family, during which time the Way Of The Observant Thief was further refined.

Originally the two methods had been intended as lifestyles, thieving methods approached as martial arts. The third had been added after the destruction of the Kumon dojo had demonstrated that mixing the two had been rather volatile.

The Way Of The Observant Thief was actually more along the lines of martial arts spying.

Professor Tomoe waved goodbye to his houseguests, an eye on his daughter as she also waved.

"Why do they have to go, Papa?" asked the little girl, clearly upset about losing her friend.

"Because Ranma's training to be a martial artist and that's how his father is training him," answered the Professor. He didn't mention how restless Genma had been getting the longer they were in one place. Genma apparently had a bit of wanderlust in him still.

"Ranma will come back, won't he?" Hotaru asked as the two turned a corner and vanished from view.

"Of course he will, Hotaru-chan. Of course he will."

* * *

Ranma had a purpose in life. Of such things can major differences can be formed. He had to protect Hotaru. While he'd been studying the martial arts before, Hotaru was going to be in trouble somehow if he couldn't protect her.

So Ranma was less driven by pride and more by purpose. A small difference in motivation perhaps, yet not without repercussions.

* * *

In one world, Soichiro Tomoe would have developed a "tanstaffel" - universe in a pocket. That would have left him to contact a Class IV Vampiric Entity known as Pharoah 90, which would have been very bad indeed.

Things were going a bit differently, but his field of expertise had been shaped for years before Genma Saotome had crossed paths with his own. He was also brilliant in that field, if a bit absent-minded and fumbling outside of it. Dimensional physics was still his focus in the sciences and he worked out the problems in his math eventually with several of the more promising students such as Kaolinite.

His thought processes were a bit different though, and so instead of a "pocket universe" he was developing something a little different.

His work showed mathematically how one might be able to open wormholes in space that would allow for travel over interstellar distances. He envisaged large toroidal 'stargates' which would link distant star systems and allow for humanity to spread to other planets.

Which led to Soichiro Tomoe being contacted by some very interested people.

* * *

Genma slowly awoke, stretching his frame bit by bit in the cool mountain air. Another day of training his son in the skills needed for him to become the true heir to Anything Goes. At fourteen, his son was fairly impressive - and the goal of protecting Hotaru was still something that the boy puzzled over but threw himself into.

"Excuse me," said Genma, bumping into some guy wearing sunglasses and a black suit as he stretched out. Yes, today would be a day of harsh training under difficult circumstances and... ?!

There was one such gentleman. And another over there. And three gathered there. And one over there talking into some walkie-talkie. And another with field glasses over there. And another right over there.

"Uhm, is something wrong?" asked Genma, hoping these weren't bill collectors.

Ranma had just gotten up and was fidgeting. "Is it about Hotaru?"

The guys (and one girl) in their stark black suits all looked as one towards Ranma.

One of them nodded.

"Then let's go!" Ranma declared, cutting off any protest his father might make.

* * *

The trip was made mainly in silence, the people in the suits seemed disinclined to small talk and nobody was giving any details on the events going on at their destination.

Ranma spent the entire time fidgeting. This was his big chance. Everything he'd learned so far was for the goal that was fast approaching. He had to do well. Since they were heading to the United States, he was also flipping through an English phrasebook.

"Haroo, Mistaru Jonusu. The pencil iss yerrow. Hasta la vista babee. Do ruu speake Japonese? You no shut up, I beat you like drum at bongo festival. Where is the bathroom?"

For some reason, a number of the black suited figures (including the girl) spent a lot of time either wincing or trying to restrain laughter.

* * *

General Hammond looked over the two and wondered why the old scientist had insisted on these two being informed if anything happened to him. Well, maybe appearances could be deceiving.

General Hammond knew that it would be hard enough to explain matters to anyone. After all, it wasn't every day that one would tell a civilian of another nation that the U.S. military not only had a device that could allow interplanetary travel, but used it on a regular basis. Of course, he could leave that part out, and simply inform them about the fact that someone had kidnapped the girl, but then that wasn't much better. Adding in the language barrier was just another hurdle that he didn't need at the moment.

Still, for some rather odd reason, Doctor Tomoe had been insistent that these two be told if anything happened to him or his child. He didn't understand why, but one could never understand the twists of another persons mind fully. However a promise was a promise, and he had a duty to fulfil.

"Hello, I'm General Hammond, the commander of this facility," he told them, "And I have some rather bad news to inform you of."

"Is about Hotaru, no?" the teenager asked.

"Yes, I'm afraid that it is."

"What happen?"

"Ranma!" the elder Japanese man snapped.

The boy subsided, but looked rather annoyed to be restrained.

"Too sorry. Son very worried."

"I can completely understand," the General replied, "I would feel the same in his place."

The other man merely nodded.

"As for the situation, it is rather... bad. Shortly before we contacted you, an enemy force broke into this base and kidnapped Hotaru."

"'Kidnap'?" Ranma parroted in confusion.

"Grabbed, took... stole."

"Huh?!"

"She was taken by force, and the ones who did it ran off before we could get her back."

"Is not good. I go now."

"Where?"

"Rescue," came the teen's reply as he left the room.

"You can't exactly do that."

"Watch."

The General was about to answer that before he saw the boy manage to duck an weave around the guard outside the room with such ease and speed that he was shocked.

But a simple grab by his father caught the teen by the collar and dragged him back into the room.

Scowling, the boy glared up at his father. "Why do that?!"

"Time listen," came Genma's reply.

"Exactly," Hammond commented as he tried to get over how quickly the pair moved. "It's not as simple as you think. These were not normal people who kidnapped her."

"Who?"

"They are called Goa'uld, and they are a race of beings that take humans as bodies for themselves."

"Is... what word... Monsters?" Ranma blurted.

"They can be called that, but they are very powerful, with a lot of slaves who worship them as gods."

Both Saotomes frowned as they considered his words, and he was sure that they were going to have a lot of trouble dealing with what had come up. It wasn't an easy thing, but he knew that they would have to deal with it as quickly as they could. But he wouldn't push them, as it wouldn't serve any useful purpose.

* * *

Ranma fretted and paced, looking like a fourteen year old Japanese boy who was a little hyper or something.

In another world, another time, Ranma would have been a dedicated martial artist. Well, mostly. He tended to slack in that timeline until pushed by circumstances to master a new set of techniques or counter the same by a new/recurring opponent. For him to go out and try to learn a new technique on his own was much more rare.

Here, however, he had a Purpose. He'd known for years that his old man had told him that Hotaru needed to be protected. That it was Ranma's purpose in life.

Ranma had since watched and read all sorts of stories that involved that very concept, as he could relate now to the events in that sort of thing. She was his princess, sort of, and he was the samurai/gunman/knight who was charged with protecting her.

Ranma therefore was not weaker for having this new focus in his life. He'd learned more at this point than he otherwise might have, and more than he thought his father suspected.

"I rescue Hotaru," said Ranma again, glaring at his father.

Genma responded in Japanese, and whatever he said did not sound at all polite.

"Son, I understand you want to go off after your girlfriend, but what can you do when we already have a military force out there?" General Hammond had been young once, in love once or twice, but the idea of a foreign national being allowed access to the Stargate - unthinkable. Even now he was still inclined to use the expedient solution of sheathing it in concrete and burying it.

"General?" An aide stuck his head into the room. "We have activity at the Stargate, it looks like the team's coming back."

"You two wait here, I'll be right back," ordered the General, following the aide. Then he stopped and looked back in the room. "Where'd the boy go?"

Genma looked around and said something else in Japanese that didn't sound polite.

* * *

Ninjitsu. Not a particularly powerful style, but effective and it had some decent special techniques.

Several times guards raised their weapons and investigated a shadow, only to miss a flitting shadow behind them.

This was the kind of task he had been raised to do, and if he had to prove himself in order to rescue Hotaru - that was what he would do.

_Now let's see, if I was some 'Sta-ru-ge-to', where would I be? Probably the lowest level because they would be restricting access to it._

* * *

"What do you mean you can't find him?" General Hammond asked.

"Ninjitsu technique," grumbled the large father walking around in the General's shadow.

"'Ninja'?" asked the General, whirling on Genma. "Your son is a ninja?"

"Not ninja. Use ninja technique. Hotaru fiancee of boy," explained Genma, frowning as he dredged up his English skills. The more he used it, the more he remembered - but it had been awhile since he'd done anything like this. He'd learned it years ago at a base while studying. "Commando training. Spe-ci-a-ru O-pa-su."

General Hammond stared for a moment before continuing at a slightly faster pace down the corridor. "Special ops training on a child? Captain Tsubasa! Go over the folder on these two and summarize it in light of these new developments."

"Already have sir," said the aide. "These two are practitioners of a highly advanced martial art style whose name translates as 'Anything Goes School Of Indiscriminate Grappling.'"

"Sounds like something O'Neill would find interesting," said the General.

"It seems similar to the 'Cotton Fist' or 'Goju Ryu' styles. Use anything that is useful, adopt your opponent's moves into your own, adapt like water to any situation, and so on." Captain Tsubasa opened a small notebook which had a bright baseball logo on it. "Expert thieves though they stick to penny-ante stuff, mainly food."

"Is for Art," token protested Genma.

"You have no idea how much trouble your son could find himself in, do you?" The General glared briefly at Genma. "Tsubasa, take Mister Saotome to his room and post a guard. Harlich, coordinate the search for his son."

"You not find him," protested Genma, "he use Umisenken. Special technique. Is not ninja, is like ninja. Tell Ranma it ninja, he learn so -"

"Yes I'm sure that's fascinating but we just don't have the time now," said the General. "I'll speak to you later."

* * *

Despite the fact that he knew little about this place, Ranma was sure that he could find this thing. He'd been trained most of his life to do stuff like this, and he wasn't planning on acting on letting all that effort go to waste. Hotaru was out there, and in danger, somewhere, and it was up to him to save her. There was no way that between his training, and the memories of the sweet little girl, that he would let anything stop him.

A few hitchhikes down on elevators later, he'd managed to get to a level swarming with activity. There were a lot soldiers heading in one direction, and he decided to follow them. If there was some big to do where he wanted to go, then it was likely that they'd send forces to make sure that everything was secure. However, since they took the most direct route, he only had to trail after them.

That led him to a rather odd room, in which things got even odder. A ramp led up to what looked like a big stone ring, only there were lights on it, and an inner ring was turning with a speed that should have been impossible. It seemed that it was dangerous, as the soldiers were pointing guns at the thing.

He wasn't prepared for the big... whooshing sound that came from it, nor the sight of what looked like water spanning a space that was vertical.

And when people started coming through out from the 'water', he nearly lost his balance in shock, while watching four people come down that ramp.

* * *

The base was even more inclined towards frantic activity as the team returned.

The cause was a large dark-skinned man with an emblem on his forehead.

"Wait," said the large man. "There is someone unseen here."

O'Neil and the others began making explanations about closed-circuit television.

General Hammond made the connection. "That boy made it down this far?!"

Teal'c looked around, his eyes scanning the surroundings.

"What boy?" asked O'Neil.

"Hotaru's fiance," said the General, also scanning the room around him with his gaze. "If he made it down here, I'm actually a little impressed. This 'commando training' the boy has undergone might be something to look into later."

Teal'c continued to look around when he paused and his gaze tracked back to a place he'd already passed by. "There."

"I don't see..." O'Neil began.

Seeing all the guns pointed in his direction, Ranma reluctantly dropped the Umisenken.

"...I gotta learn that," finished O'Neil.

"Is special technique. Where Hotaru?" asked Ranma.

"You should be worrying about yourself, son," indicated the General.

"No worry me, need protect Hotaru," said Ranma with the sort of focus a fourteen year old boy rarely had.

"Well, that might be a little difficult," hedged O'Neil.

"Me go, me is protect Hotaru," insisted Ranma.

"I understand," said Teal'c, surprising people who had momentarily forgotten about the stranger. "You are a warrior and you have your task before you. You cannot go before you learn the details though, or you will fail in your mission."

Oddly enough that seemed to calm Ranma. "Sun Tzu. Understand. Need learn. (I don't know how to say it in English though. I was to be her protector and I wasn't there to protect her.)"

"So the Stargates do have a translation function as regards spoken languages," said a guy in glasses.

"That is good for future reference," General Hammond commented, "But even with that realisation, and the understanding that Mister Saotome here has for his problem, I'm not about to let him run all over this facility."

"That's understandable," O'Neil said, "But who is he, and how'd he get down here?"

"This is Ranma Saotome. He and his father were the ones that we were instructed to contact by Doctor Tomoe if anything happened to him or his daughter."

"Ahh... An emergency contact field trip."

"Is not trip. (I wanna find Hotaru and save her)," Ranma grumbled, "(I can't do that without going and finding her.)"

"Ain't going to happen."

"(What's that mean?)"

"It means that kids with no intel, no clearence, and no idea of what's going on shouldn't go and risk little girls getting hurt."

"(I wouldn't do that.)"

"You'd risk it," the colonel replied, "You really wanna help out? Let us handle things."

"(It's not what I'm supposed to do.)"

Teal'c nodded. "Indeed. He's a warrior. For such to go back on an oath is no little thing."

"(See?)"

O'Neil gave the dark skinned man a sour look. "Who's side are you on anyway?"

"You do realise that for him, it is like you are asking him to let someone close to him be in danger when he feels he could stop it."

"He's got a point there," the man in glasses commented.

"Thank you for that, Daniel," O'Neil drawled.

"You're welcome... err..."

"There is a way to make him settle down," Teal'c informed the group.

"And that would be..?"

The bald man gave the teen a measuring look. "Would you risk going after your companion without knowing where she is, or what sort of forces you might be facing?"

"(I could figure out something when I got there..,)" Ranma muttered.

"But would it not be better to know what it is that you face, and how to defeat it?"

"(Ugh... You're right...)"

Teal'c nodded in response to the boy's agreement.

"One thing though," Daniel commented, "Did anyone think to mention to him that he can't get to where she is unless the Gate's opened for him?"

At his words, O'Neil turned to the woman. "Carter?"

"That's true, sir. Unless he was instructed in the use of the dialing computer and given clearence, he wouldn't be able to dial out."

"Carter..."

"He can't use the Gate unless someone shows him how."

"And since he hadn't been on base long enough for that, it's certain that he won't be going anywhere," Hammond said.

The Japanese boy sighed heavily and slumped as he realised that even with his need to help Hotaru, he couldn't act as he'd hoped to.

"That's reassuring," O'Neil commented, "Now, can we leave the room and get on with business?"

Hammond nodded. "Certainly. Unless Mister Saotome wishes to try something else."

"(No. I'll wait. For now,)" Ranma muttered, clearly displeased about his being delayed.

"Good. Then you can stay on the base while we figure out just what we should do."

"Great. We get to report on our outing," O'Neil drawled -0-0-0-0-------------------  
Author's Notes: Roughly half of this was written by Kender_Sci, the other half by me, over at the Anime Addventure.

It's easier for people to read in a fanfic format though.

i'm hoping that by writing and posting this here, it'll get me over the writer's block i've had on this story for over a month now. We'll see.


	2. Chapter 2: A road less taken

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_SciDISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Also note that some text in the original came in different colors, but doesn't support that function as far as i can tell.

Chapter 2: A road less taken

* * *

Hotaru twisted in the grip of these men as they set her down. As they took some slimy creature and brought it up.

As they prepared to shut down her immune system before the worm could enter her body.

Hotaru reached inside herself, trying to find whatever strength she could to break free. She'd been told that Ranma had had to leave so he could learn to protect her, at least that was the interpretation that Ranma's father had used when they were getting ready to leave. Unfortunately no Ranma, so she had to try and find some resource of her own to use.

Something answered.

* * *

Ranma went stiff all of a sudden, twisting to look down and to the right. "(Hotaru?)"

Nobody in the room needed to ask, they all knew exactly where the boy was looking.

* * *

Had the original timeline remained undisturbed, it would have occurred later when Mistress Nine had bound Uranus and Neptune to a statue and was confronting Hotaru's father and Sailor Moon. Despite never having seen it before, both Uranus and Neptune would have recognized it immediately.

The pacifier was brandished as the girl seemed to panic, and it was expected that she would slump and be prepared for the Goa'uld as so many had over so many centuries. There was some curious effect - a stylized "h" appearing on the girl's forehead, but there was absolutely nothing that this cattle could do to prevent the Goa'uld from taking her as thei-

#Omega Soldier Recovery. Active.#

* * *

The kine looked up at the pyramid. Of course the gods were all powerful and their guards would punish them if they were less than properly subservient.

As the pyramid began coming apart in the air, the kine stopped worrying about being properly respectful and began worrying about big pieces of pyramid coming down.

* * *

Professor Tomoe felt the vibration, heard the explosions, and knew from the uncertainty of the guards that something was not going well for the Goa'uld.

He waited, biding his time, until the soldiers ran off to go investigate whatever was happening. Then he simply walked over to the pen's entry and let himself out.

Now all he had to do was find Hotaru and get back to the Stargate.

Upon exiting the pens, he happened to glance up and see a formerly pyramidal shape occasionally lit by purple lightning stabbing up from within?

* * *

The Goa'uld had been scavengers and predators for a very long time. They had been opposed by Odin and a few others during that time.

If anyone had survived seeing Sailor Saturn, one would have been able to adjust their tactics and possibly defeat her.

Instead they were facing an inexperienced and still panicked Sailor Saturn. She used her Silence Wall to block incoming attacks, then her Silence Glaive Surprise put large gaping holes in the ranks of those minions. There were also large gaping holes in ceiling, floor, walls, machinery, and sundry other parts of her immediate environment.

Wreathed in purple flames, the Senshi Of Destruction was in her element. Her Glaive's supernaturally keen blade sliced through supports, her blasts made really impressive holes in lots of available surfaces, and she was otherwise acting every bit the part of the Damsel In Distress. If said Damsel could throw energy bolts capable of ripping a castle in half, of course.

* * *

"Okay," O'Neill commented, "We know something's up with the kid."

"That's true, but we can't tell just what sort of situation that we might get from this. Mister Saotome, just what sort of things did you teach your son?" Hammond asked as he looked at the man sitting near the end of the table.

Genma tried not to sweat, but knew that things were a bit of a mess. "How to fight, how to use ki. He learn to fight harder, faster, stronger. Use brains, body and spirit in fight."

"And just how did he manage to pop up from thin air?"

"It special trick. Advanced. I create. It use ki to make indiv... inivid... not seen."

The colonel sighed. "What does that mean?"

"If I'm understanding him correctly, he's talking about 'life force' or an 'inner strength'. You see, in Chinese philosophy, there has been a belief in an inner core energy within all things..." Daniel began.

"Forget the history lesson, and just get to the point."

"Well, it's long been said that martial artists who are strong enough can use their ki to do things that other people consider impossible."

"Like what?"

"'Like'... punching through concrete, walking without leaving a footprint, leaping onto the roof of a house in one shot... killing with a touch. That sort of thing."

"What? Like in those kung fu flicks?"

"Movies? Bah! That use strings and camera tricks," Genma snorted, "We do real fights."

Hammond raied a brow at the portly man. "And your son is capable of that sort of thing?"

"Sure. Is beginning stuff. He my son. He learn lots."

"Captain? Could there be a scientific explaination for this?"

Carter shrugged. "I'd probably say no, but you do have to admit, it's not every day that a boy just appears out of nowhere."

"That's true. But we do have to figure out what we're going to do about this situation. The answer's not about to appear before us."

An 'answer' didn't, but an intangible girl in what looked like an abbrieviated cheerleader uniform did, and she was carrying a rather wicked looking polearm. "Ranma..."

"(Hotaru?!)" the pigtailed boy called out as his head snapped up to look at their visitor.

"I need help..."

"I come!"

She nodded, and he was bathed in a purple glow. For a moment, he stood there with a determined look on his face. But then there was a flash, and he was gone.

All eyes turned to Genma, who waved his hands in denial. "I no teach him how do that!"

"What's going on?" O'Neill asked. "Carter? Daniel? Teal'c?"

"I don't know, sir," Carter replied with a shake of her head.

The archeologist looked as confused as Jack did. "You got me."

"No Goa'uld techology I know of could manage such a feat," Teal'c commented.

"Oh, just great. We've got ourselves a teenaged Houdini," Jack muttered.

"And the girl?" Hammond asked.

"He did call her 'Hotaru'," Daniel pointed out.

Hammond and SG-1 looked at each other as they pondered what this could mean.

* * *

Saturn blinked for a moment as she tried to figure out what had happened. She'd been so afraid of what was going on around her that she'd wished with all her heart that she'd had Ranma with her. Her friend had always been strong and protective, and she needed that sort of thing. But she knew that he was travelling with his father, and when she thought that she'd talked to him, it had merely been her need to reassure herself.

However, that explaination didn't cover how he could be standing in front of her at this moment. "Ranma?"

"Hotaru?" the pigtailed boy replied.

"Ranma!"

His arms suddenly full of a sobbing girl, Ranma found himself startled for a moment, but he eventually got over it and hugged her back. "Don't ya worry. I'm here now, and I'll keep ya safe."

"Uh-huh..," she sniffled, cuddling into his chest, and knowing that things would be okay. She didn't know how he'd gotten there, or how she'd brought him, but she was happy to see him either way. For the first time since she'd been taken, she felt safe, and was sure that everything would be alright now.

* * *

There were the Goa'uld, almost smarmy in their superiority. They could run roughshod over the Galaxy and only a few were able to stand against them even slightly. They viewed themselves as a superior race that used lesser races however they wanted.

The thought that one of their victims fighting back was laughable. Successfully was unthinkable.

Which was one reason that they were having the level of problems they currently were.

SOMETHING faded into the background, then came out with punches that shattered helmets and crushed armor.

"How the heck do you use these things?" asked that something as one of the staff-weapons was hefted.

"I don't know," said Hotaru as she followed the trail of destruction.

_BOOM!_ went something somewhere else in the facility.

"Got an idea," said Ranma as he faded completely back into view. "How about you wear one of these outfits? They might think you're one of these Ghouled people."

"I don't know," said Hotaru, viewing the bronze and leather outfit and weighing the possibility.

A Jaffa came running up, aimed his staff, and then started looking for the target that had been standing there just a second ago.

"Ya blinked," said Ranma, jamming the staff into the person's back.

_FSHHHT! VUM!_

"Oh, that's how ya do it. Nice of the guy ta show me how. Here," said Ranma, handing the weapon off. "Ya can use this instead of that weapon you had when you were in that cheerleader outfit."

Hotaru looked it over, wanting an owner's manual and not seeing one.

"Ah, a sack," said Ranma, finding a container. "Here we go."

"You're looting the place?" asked Hotaru.

"Something Pops taught me," admitted Ranma. "'If you can steal from an enemy, do so. You enrich yourself and deprive your enemy of those resources at the same time.' I think he lifted it from Sun Tzu but I'm not sure. Them people your Dad worked for seemed fairly P. and maybe I can bribe 'em off with some of this junk."

Hotaru hmmmed in a noncomittal way.

* * *

Genma winced at the bright lights. The General, among others, wanted to see him use chi. This was hardly what he'd expected to happen when they'd been sent for.

Still, he could do this much. He raised his presence with his chi, seeming to grow larger until he filled the room.

"Whoa," said McNeill.

"He hasn't changed, all readings are the same," complained Carter. "It's just that he looks bigger."

Genma shrugged and released it. "Is advanced technique."

"What about breaking bricks?" asked Carter.

"Is kid stuff," answered Genma, scowling. "Watch, yes?"

Genma disassembled the three bricks which had been laid out so that the two were endwise and supporting the third. Instead he just simply stacked one atop the other and then struck. The top brick remained undamaged. The middle brick shattered. "Is no challenge break brick. Brick no fight back."

General Hammond was looking very thoughtful as he watched the portly man. "So you and your son know 'techniques' like this?"

"Is simple. Advanced technique is school secret. Only pass on to heir, tradition is," tried Genma. "Show you, simple stuff am."

* * *

"Okay..," Colonel O'Neill said as he glanced around himself, "I've always thought that I knew fighting styles, but how the heck is he doing this stuff?"

Teal'c raised a brow. "I do not know. In all my years of training, and in combat, I have yet to see anything that can seem to match this level of prowess."

"So... No space aliens that can move faster than we can see or pull stuff out of nowhere, or hit things without touching them?"

"None that I have seen either personally, or in any tale available to the Goa'uld."

"Carter?"

"Sorry sir," the blonde woman replied, "I don't have an explaination for you. I have _theories_, but I'd have to have Mister Saotome in a lab and run tons of experiments to even start understanding what makes him able to do... _this_."

"Great. Daniel?" Jack asked.

"Umm... Sorry. There are plenty of references to special abilities, but they're all vague stories. They tell of powerful techniques known only by a small groups, but they only speak of 'gifts from the gods' or the 'powers that emanate from within us all'," Doctor Jackson answered.

"Could this be some sort of leftover Goa'uld experiment or something like that?" Hammond put in.

"It's entirely possible, but it's also possible that it might be some sort of special powers that only show up in a small section of the population."

"I see..."

Genma sat crosslegged and wondered what all the fuss was about. He hadn't even shown them the big stuff, and they were acting as if there was some sort of major problem.

Of course, he was also standing on his head at the moment, but it was just another balancing exercise, and was nothing special.

* * *

"Now, what happened to your dad?" Ranma asked Hotaru as he led her through the Goa'uld base, or what remained of it.

She nibbled a little on her lower lip. "I don't know... They took us together, but seperated us when some glowing eyed guy picked me out..."

"'Kay... That ain't good, but it ain't bad. We'll just have to see 'bout finding him so we can see how he is."

"I hope so..."

"Don't worry. All ya gotta do is believe that we'll do it, and we will."

"You think so?"

"I know so. If ya think that ya are gonna lose, ya will lose. It's as simple as that. So perk up, 'kay?"

"Sure," she told him, and gave him a smile that had him blushing and giving a bit of a nervous giggle.

But it didn't stop him from tossing his bag at the center of a trio of Jaffa. As that man found himself burdened by an armfull of loot, Ranma was using the distraction to strike the other two at the same time. He bounced between the pair, quickly taking them out before kicking his bag out of the last one's hold. That was followed by a kick to the chest that made him stumble, and one to the head that had the Jaffa twirling in the air a bit before he flew into the ground with a painful 'thud'.

"See?" the pigtailed boy said with a glance at the fallen warriors.

"Ranma..," Hotaru began.

"What?"

"I..."

"You're still not..."

The staff in her hands let out a blast which made her stumble, and the warrior who'd been getting up fall back down again."

"'Scared'..."

"Did I do that?"

"Yeah, ya did."

"Oh my..,"

"C'mon. Let's go find your dad," he said, pulling her by the arm as they went.

* * *

_BOOM!_

The people, slaves of Aphosis, were amazed.

This was because something was going on that their 'gods' were clearly not up to fighting. To be fair, if the various individuals had been prepared and the fight had occurred outside one of their motherships, it would have been a lot more even.

When seeing one boy fade out of nowhere to smash locks and casually crush Jaffa in protection of this one girl, they began to figure this out within the framework of references that they had available.

When a set of Jaffa appeared with large weapons, they quailed momentarily in fright. Then the girl seemed to change, her clothing shifting to some odd costume. At which point she pointed a weapon at the Jaffa and blew them up.

It was obvious. This was a new goddess, more powerful even than Apophis, and her Consort/Jaffa.

* * *

Professor Soichiro Tomoe heard the mutters and checked his notes, translating the Chulak language. They had apparently mistaken Hotaru for a Goa'uld?

He briefly considered the pluses and minuses of this misidentification. If he corrected them, there was a chance that one of these others would then seek to harm Hotaru in order to get mercy from the "all powerful" gods like Apophis. Therefore it was safer for Hotaru if he did NOT correct this misunderstanding.

Besides, he had absolutely no idea how Ranma and Hotaru were doing what they were doing. If Hotaru or Ranma had been taken over by a Goa'uld, they sure weren't acting like such. So he'd have to keep analyzing the situation.

* * *

They'd found her father, a lot of prisoners, and were in the process of doing what Ranma considered his natural duty as detailed by his father.

Which was, quite simply, kicking butt.

He handed off his bag of swag and started on collecting more stuff. (He figured those guys in the uniforms were ticked that he got to that room with the big ring-thingie, so getting past them would make them really really ticked. Might need a lot of loot to distract them.) Ranma then showed a few people how to use the 'staff thingies' and pointed them to areas from which they had a good field of fire.

He didn't need help, of course, but since Hotaru wanted the prisoners rescued - they'd be rescued.

He'd handed some of the stuff to Hotaru. It glittered nicely and if it made these nutsoids hesitate to shoot her, thinking she was one of them, that would work out real good.

(That Hotaru had blushed, stammered a lot, and was thinking warm and fuzzy thoughts about her guard was not as obvious to Ranma.)

* * *

Genma ate. Several of the observers were at least slightly disgusted by the display.

"Well?" asked General Hammond.

"I thought that Japanese had better table manners," commented O'Neill.

"Not that," said a slightly peeved Hammond.

"In Eastern myths, legends, and _wuxia_," began Daniel Jackson.

"'Whatsia'?" interrupted O'Neill.

"'_Wuxia_' - Chinese sword and sorcery or 'wire-fu' movies," qualified Daniel. "Chi is part of the environment, a force all around us that is mainly strong in living creatures. Martial artists of this sort were supposedly able to do all sorts of superhuman abilities through control of their own chi and able to tap into or manipulate this odd life energy."

"You mean he uses 'the Force' like some Jedi Knight kind of thing?" asked O'Neill, a bit skeptical but also pretty envious of what he'd seen the portly man do.

"That was mainly where Lucas got the inspiration for that sort of thing," agreed Jackson. "The source material was based on this sort of Chinese mysticism."

"Which may be some form of Goa'uld genetic engineering," pointed out General Hammond. "Any findings yet on this? Is it something we can use ourselves?"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow, betraying his own interest in the subject.

"Even if this is the same phenomena as in those stories, only a few individuals were able to tap into it - and even then only after years of training," pointed out Daniel.

An alarm began playing. "Off world activation. Repeat. Off world activation."

* * *

"What have we got?" Hammond asked as he entered the control room overlooking the gate.

"An off world activation, sir," Harriman, the tech in charge of the dialing computer, replied. "And a signal..."

"From who?"

"It's... Professor Tomoe, sir."

"Open it up."

"Yes sir."

O'Neill raised a brow as he entered the Gate Room along with the rest of SG-1. "Looks like we don't have to go after them."

"This may be some sort of trick," Teal'c commented.

"By a Goa'uld? Why ever would they do something like that?"

"That is why we have soldiers here..."

"Too true. But I'm sure that nothing will come out of that thing that will surprise us too much..."

At that moment, a Jaffa came flying backwards through the Gate, and landed with a crash on the ramp.

"Okay, that's new."

Then more Jaffa came through the Gate, marching forewards in a standard formation. The soldiers defending the base tensed for a moment, until the reality of the situation set in. None of the Jaffa had weapons on them, and each had their hands tied behind them and weary looks on their faces. As the those in the Gate Room boggled at the sight, the reason for it became apparent as civilians armed with staff weapons came out, pointing them at the warriors.

"What's going on?" Carter asked, confusion written all over her face.

"I think all of us would like to know that," Daniel put in lamely.

"Father!" called out a young voice as a group of unarmed civilians came through the Gate, and a boy came running over to Teal'c.

"Rya'c!" the former First Prime replied, "How is it that you are here?"

"We came along with everyone else," Rya'c replied calmly.

"'We'?"

"Yes, we," another voice put in, and a woman came to him.

"Drey'auc?"

"It is me. We came with the others."

"What is this?"

"The Jaffa are prisoners, and the rest are those who have left their old lives in hope to find a new path."

"Refugees," Carter said in wonder, "They're refugees."

"Swell... But how did they become refugees?" O'Neill asked.

Drey'auc turned to the Colonel to speak with him. "When the purple lightning came down, and the armies of Apophis fell in battle, there were those who decided that it would not be best to continue serving him."

"'Purple lightning'?"

"I do not know what it is beyond that, but it tore apart a pyramid with an ease that spoke of great power."

"Okay. I can understand that. But how did you get here?"

"They brought us," Drey'auc replied and pointed towards the Gate, just as three shapes showed up.

"That'd do it. Bringing home strays, professor?"

Professor Tomoe blinked as he adjusted to the difference in scenery, and found himself being approached by O'Neill. "What do you mean?"

"You leave here with problems, and when you come back, it's with new friends."

"Oh, that. Well, they apparently think that my daughter's some sort of... god, just more powerful than..."

"Okay... But she's not... You know?"

"It doesn't seem to be so..."

"Good," the colonel replied before turning to the girl in question, "Welcome back."

Hotaru stared at him for a moment before darting foward to hug him.

"Nice to see you again too kid," Jack said as he ruffled her hair. "And nice of you to come back, Saotome."

"(Didn't know how I went, but I came back,)" Ranma replied.

"I can see that. And what's with the bags?"

"(Umm... Stuff?)"

"You mind saying something helpful?"

Noticing that he had several annoyed people looking at him, the pigtailed boy opened up his bag and pulled out a Zat. "(Here.)"

"A gift? For me? You shouldn't have."

"(I've got plenty more. Those guys had all sorts of junk, and I figured that I'd just take everything that I could.)"

"Did you now..?"

"(Yup. Got lots of those things, and plenty of other stuff.)"

Carter stepped up to the group. "Are you telling us that you brought Goa'uld technology back with you?"

"(Dunno 'bout technology, but I know I got a lot of stuff,)" he said, and pulled out a hand device. He was reasonably sure that it would be a good gift, since girls liked jewelry. "(Ya can have this.)"

"Gee... Thanks..," the blonde woman replied, uncertain of how to take this development.

"(And the man in the glasses, here...)"

"'Daniel Jackson', or just 'Daniel'," the archeologist replied as he took a set of papers from the boy. "Hmmm... Reading material?"

"(I don't know what ya'd like, and ya seem ta be the type ta like that sorta stuff.)"

"I do... Sort of..."

"(Good. Then enjoy it.)"

"I will... though I do think that Sam will need to look over them too."

"Oh?" O'Neill murmured, "Why is that?"

"Because if my initial translations are right, these are the schematics for at least parts of a Death Glider."

"Cool."

"Will someone explain what's going on?" Hammond called out as he walked into the Gate Room.

"Well sir, it looks like Ranma brought the Tomoes back, and brought prisoners, refugees, and presents. Nice kid, huh?"

"Are you saying what I think you're saying, Colonel?"

"Pretty much sir," Jack replied.

"And what are we supposed to do with all these people?"

"We can lock up the prisoners."

"And the refugees?"

"Hmm... I think the rates at the Ramada are cheap enough to get enough rooms," O'Neill joked, and shrugged.

* * *

If Pluto had been aware of it, she would have been most upset.

If things had gone as originally, Professor Tomoe would have gone on to work out a _tanstaffel_ universe principle and contact a being known as Pharoah 90.

Instead, Professor Tomoe had been contacted by the US Government as a world expert on para-dimensional theory and space-folds. He had been working towards a new theory of hyperspace but running into major funding problems. He had joined a few months before a guy named Daniel Jackson was brought in, and a little adventure had ended up in a place called Abydos.

Professor Tomoe had been happily working out theories of gravitational toroids and how it might be possible to construct "oomphing big" toroidal black hole generators in space and connect to other places in the galaxy. He was Japanese, as was his daughter, but he saw the project as having value to the species as a whole. Then the attack by Apophis. He'd been reunited with Daniel Jackson briefly, gone with SG-2 into this "Chulak" world and been captured.

SG-1 went through nearly identical paths that they would have despite the presence of the Tomoe family. They'd gotten back with Teal'c and met two people that Professor Tomoe had written into his original contract as Emergency Contact people.

Had things gone as they originally would have, Stargate Command would have faced major financial difficulties and eventually faced shut down for no return on the investment.

Things were taking a major divergence right now...

* * *

"We'll find a way to get it out of her," said Doctor Janet Fraiser to Professor Daniel Jackson.

"It's just so hard seeing her like this," said Daniel, looking into the isolation cell where the former Sha're was pacing back and forth like some recently caged wild beast.

"It's a chance, it's better than we would have without her," pointed out the doctor.

* * *

"...really, we just don't see any possibility of further funding, General," said the Colonel as the elevator went down. "Not unless you run across something we can use."

General Hammond had been around for quite some time. He could avoid smirking. "Is that so?"

"Yes, there is Senator Kinsey and he's becoming quite a..." The elevator doors opened. "what the hell?"

"We got lucky. Can't count on it happening again so we want to make full use of the opportunity. Oh that's a 'Death Glider' we're assembling from pieces, that's a weapons cache - hardly ever been used, that's a few other bits and pieces we've scavenged from Chulak," answered General Hammond. "I believe you can see why we want to 'farm out' to other research installations some of this. We're frankly overwhelmed as it is. Oh, and you might want to close your mouth, Colonel."

* * *

"You will get nothing from me! I am loyal only to mighty Apophis!"

The interrogators looked at each other, shrugged, looked back at this three-man group of captives and seemed to consider that briefly. "Okay."

"If you surrender now, Apophis will make your suffering brief," counseled a second of the Jaffa.

"Oh no, we're going to let him take care of you," said one of the interrogators, smiling in a way that suggested that if he'd been playing poker - he was about to lay down a Royal Straight Flush.

"Whatever you..." the Jaffa's voice trailed off as he saw through the glass into the next room. "The Destroyer?"

Despite it being a fairly comfortable cool temperature, the interrogators saw a bright sheen of sweat develop on the three Jaffa. One of the interrogators smiled - it had been taking too long to try and do this one-on-one, but Teal'c had listened to some of the stories and come up with this idea. While gathering groups of Jaffa seemed to make them a bit more arrogant and confident, all it took was seeing the boy and/or the girl and a little story seemed to help.

"Apophis was killed by the First Prime Ranma of the goddess Hotaru," explained the lead interrogator. "Now if you're not willing to talk to us, maybe you can talk to the 'Destroyer's Wrath' there."

The three Jaffa began exhibiting the usual signs of nervousness. One swallowed a couple of times and wet his lips. "Maybe we could answer a few questions. That might be acceptable."

* * *

"(Aw man,)" complained Ranma with a scowl.

"Don't think of it as being under house arrest and with people ready to shoot you if you even look like you're about to do something else," said O'Neill. "Think of it as... being kind of..."

"(Yes?)" prompted Ranma after a silent moment.

"I'm still working on that," replied Jack.

"If you spent most of your life outdoors, are you having trouble adjusting to being underground?" asked Samantha Carter as she went through the folder they'd begun accumulating on the two Saotome.

"(Some)," admitted Ranma, not liking the closed-in feeling. He didn't like admitting it though, so his scowl increased deeply.

* * *

"Aghhh," said one of the Jaffa, seeing the Wrath getting angrier than he'd apparently been when he had ripped a Serpent Guard's helmet off, the helmet and buckles had remained intact but the flesh they'd connected to had not. All of the Jaffa who had seen that would have nightmares about it thereafter.

"He's getting up," said another Jaffa, turning pale despite his normally dark complexion.

"Can we make a deal?" asked the lead Jaffa hopefully of the interrogators.

* * *

"Sit back down, kid, stay on good behavior and you'll get together with your girlfriend again," said Jack, noting one of the interrogators in the next room was grinning. If they hadn't put in tape recorders they might have trouble jotting things down that quickly from the look of things.

"(It's hard,)" said Ranma, sitting back down and trying to look calmer. What was this 'girlfriend' bit anyway?

* * *

"Well?" asked General Hammond in the briefing room as the day came to a close.

"Hotaru, Ranma, and the Professor all check out as having no Goa'uld," said Doctor Frasier. "We have as yet no idea on how to remove the Goa'uld from Sha're or Skaara."

"There appears to be a sort of pecking order, or perhaps pack hierarchy within the Goa'uld," said Daniel thoughtfully. "With some exceptions, there seems to be a natural 'follow the leader' pack mentality among the lesser Goa'uld. Right now they kinda... respect Hotaru. Unfortunately Sha're and Skaara both were allowed close enough to Hotaru to determine she had no Goa'uld and therefore lost that respect before we realized that aspect. The Jaffa on the other hand, those who chose to follow Hotaru, don't seem to care so much about that."

"Their society worships strength and the strongest gets the most worship," translated Jack.

"When Ranma went on his 'steal everything he could' strategy to apparently buy his way back into our good graces," said Daniel with some hesitation, "apparently that was communicated to those who chose to follow him. Therefore we're still seeing people coming to the Stargate with 'offerings' scavenged from the site the Mothership went down in."

"According to Genma," said Professor Tomoe, "Hotaru has always had a monstrously powerful 'chi' - beyond anything he's ever seen in his life. I don't know where the costume or weapon came from, but it might explain the 'purple lightning' that was reported."

"Has she manifested either since then?" asked the General.

"No, nor does she apparently have an idea how she did it, only that when she needed to - she did," said the Professor. That he felt she was holding something back he decided the General didn't need to know right now. Things were dicey enough.

"One of the Chulak... Chulakians? Chulaki?" began Daniel.

"People of Chulak," prompted Jack.

"Right, one of them," continued Daniel, "she found some art supplies and did a painting that everyone agrees pretty much caught the image."

"Let's see it," said the General, curious.

An orderly brought it in, it was a fairly elaborate painting done on a easel. It was clearly not finished, some of the edges still not covered. It was detailed though and captured by someone with talent.

"A skating costume?" asked General Hammond. "What's the 'h' there?"

"One of them swears he saw it on her forehead just before transforming," said Daniel, wondering at the significance himself.

It was recognizably Hotaru, if you knew her well, but her presence was somehow magnified in the picture. Purple lightning danced around her, and a very sharp-looking polearm rested loosely in one hand. Despite the purple lightning and sharp weapon though, the other hand reached out as if towards the viewer, and the expression on the face was gentle.

"Don't fear the reaper," said Daniel.

"Excuse me?" said Jack, wondering if he'd heard that correctly.

"Something one of our people came up with, apparently it reminded him somehow of an old song by 'Blue Oyster Cult'. Maybe because of the weapon there and the predominantly black background. Everyone's just started calling the painting that - 'Don't Fear The Reaper'." Daniel shrugged.

"I don't think Hotaru has seen that yet, and what's with that short skirt?" complained Professor Tomoe. Though he thought it was accurate and if Hotaru ever was able to control this transformation - he'd request a longer skirt. And a less tight blouse.

Jack thought of something and smirk appeared on his face. "I want to see what Ranma does when he sees that."

* * *

"Let me see if I understand this correctly," Senator Kinsey muttered as he looked over the man standing in front of him. "Stargate Command has just simply _found_ a cache of alien technology."

Colonel Samuels shook his head. "No sir. Apparently, there was some sort of 'rescue' going on, and those involved managed to steal whatever they could on their way out."

"Theft. Exactly what they said they didn't want to do. Either someone there has grown a brain, or they were lying about their intentions from the start."

"Sir?"

"It's nothing concerning you. Still, how much technology are we talking about?"

"Enough to keep the scientists happy for a long time, and there is still more coming in," Samuels replied.

Kinsey gave the officer a sour look. "And what does that mean?"

"It seems that the people there have decided to... pay tribute to one of the rescued people, and they're taking the salvage to the gate."

"Are they now..?"

"They are, sir."

"I didn't want confirmation," the senator snapped, as he leaned back in his chair and scowled. "This does change things though."

* * *

All through the halls, refugees moved around in a buzz of activity. It was obvious that the newness of the place that they were in was affecting them, but it was not something like that which had them working studiously. Each of them was clearly packing not only the meager belongings that they had, but supplies that could have only come from the American military.

And watching them were Daniel Jackson and Teal'c, as the two of them kept track of the people who were being moved to their new home through the Stargate.

"This is a most odd situation, is it not?" the former First Prime commented.

Daniel nodded ruefully. "I think everything about this is strange."

"I would wish that all of them could stay here..."

"Me too, but this isn't the place for them."

Turning to the other man, Teal'c raised a brow.

"Don't look at me like that. I'd like to have them hanging around, but this is better for them. Instead of having guys with guns hovering over them, they'll get to live outside, in the fresh air, enjoying their freedom, and living how they like. And they can take care of themselves, without hearing people complain about how much this will cost... I'm babbling, aren't I?"

"A bit."

"Well... It is true. And this way they can create their own colony, based on their own rules. Here, we have to keep them from telling everyone that there are humans on other planets."

"It would have been interesting to see how they could live on this world. How would they been seen, Daniel Jackson?"

"Probably as some sort of new age religious or philosophical group initially," the archeologist replied.

"Would that be bad?"

"It was for me."

* * *

General Hammond looked over the man seated across from him and resisted the urge to sigh. It wasn't that he didn't like the fact that his command had gotten a rather major winfall, but he knew that such things would be fleeting. If he were to rely on things like surprise bonuses, he'd never be able to deal with anything, never mind if a problem came up.

But it was clear that he couldn't let just anyone know that there were people capable of thwarting entire Jaffa legions. That was why he had someone involved in that situation come to speak with him.

"I understand that you have been... telling others just how proud you are about your son," he said evenly.

"Is so. There much reason to do so," Genma boasted. "You even say he do much good things."

"We need you to stop it."

"What? Why? Father need be proud that work prove be good."

"As a father, I understand it. As a soldier and a commanding officer, there are other concerns."

The portly man frowned. "What that mean?"

"Well, we don't want everyone to know what we have available, especially if we have enemies wanting to attack us."

"Ah... Is smart plan. 'Keep ace in hole'."

Knowing that in combat terms, the man would understand, the general nodded. "Something like that. But there is another concern, one which may make you want to keep quiet."

"What that be?"

"We are treating you as best we can, under the circumstances. But others wouldn't be so kind. They'd see your son and Miss Tomoe as special."

"That be good."

"That would be making them into something that someone would at least want to control, make into soldiers, and that's at best. Mister Saotome, they may also wish to see what they could find out about the abilities that you three have, and to do so, they'd take you to a laboratory to experiment on you. Or if nothing else, they may try to kill you, thinking that you may one day turn into a threat," Hammond informed his guest.

"That... not so good..."

"No, it's not. So will you agree to keep silent on what you know?"

"As much as can," Genma agreed, "I no give away secrets."

"Good."

"But what of training? Soldiers and people in armor want to learn fighting techniques."

"We'll determine that sort of thing later."

"Is fine by me."

Hammond let himself smile as he realised that the man wasn't going to put up too much of a fuss. He'd much rather have things as calm as possible, but he wasn't likely to get that. However, he could enjoy this brief advance, and was happy to get it.

Though he did have to wonder just _why_ Saotome insisted on trying to speak English when it was already proven that the gate apparently had a 'translation function'.

It did keep the martial artist from speaking too clearly, and he was pleased about that.


	3. Chapter 3: a BOLO new world

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_SciDISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Also note that some text in the original came in different colors, but doesn't support that function as far as i can tell.

Chapter 3: A BOLO new world.

* * *

The world was fairly pleasant as far as many things were concerned. Had things not diverged, the team assigned to explore it would have sent back a "nothing here" and the world would have been largely ignored.

Things _had_ diverged, and therefore the group sent through the Stargate looked it over and the report that they sent back was somewhat longer than two words.

In an unaltered timeline, the world was not revisited.

When the Stargate opened the second time on the world christened "Refuge" - it was not to a specific team looking for signs of human habitation. It wasn't even a typical SGC team as such things were reckoned.

"Nice," said Captain Gaiman as he reached the top of the hill and looked down at what was on the other side from the Stargate.

"Darn near perfect," agreed Captain Pratchett.

Two mountain streams intersected in a large flat area, with deep woods surrounding the grassy area.

"Indeed, it appears quite pleasant," agreed Teal'c as he approached with the rest of SG-1 following.

"It'll take some work, Colonel," said Pratchett with a quick salute. "We'll begin with a sensor fence around the perimeter and pitch tents along those areas there."

"Did I just see a fish jump from that stream?" asked Jack, thinking of fresh fish instead of a MRE for dinner.

"Early report was that the fish are edible, sort of a freshwater tuna," volunteered Daniel, his thoughts oddly echoing that of Colonel O'Neill.

"Fresh water, arable land, supplies of wood and rock nearby," pointed out Captain Gaiman. "Permission to send our specialists out?"

"That'd be the geologist, Specialist Heinlein, and the botanist, Specialist McCaffrey?" asked Daniel.

"We're also sending along some Marines who've volunteered to watch over the teams, as well as Specialist Asimov," added Captain Gaiman. "That elderly engineer."

"Go ahead," said Jack distractedly. "Teal'c, any of your people good at fishing?"

* * *

"She's not really a goddess, you know," offered T'ctac as he fitted the curved blade onto the end of the staff.

"That's what they say, and the goddess herself says so, but I look at it this way," said D'Arc as she checked out one of the odd throwing weapons she'd been able to make with the tools in the "machine shop" they'd just gotten access to that morning. "Anyone who can throw lightning from their hands or tear apart ranks of Jaffa like a farmer attacking a wheat field - I will not argue with them but I also will not dispute them being a goddess and her prime."

"So we're 'Jaffa' now? I was a carpenter and you were a blacksmith just a week ago," pointed out T'ctac. "Though some of the Tauri seem to think all soldiers are Jaffa."

"So? I heard a fascinating concept from one of the Tauri, they call it part-time work," D'arc said as she tried out the throwing wedge on a nearby rat-thing. "It means you do your normal job, but only part of the time, then you do another job with the rest of the time. So I blacksmith in the morning, then when the day gets hot I play Jaffa for the goddess and her consort."

"It has possibilities," admitted T'ctac.

"Oh, and do the goddess and her consort give you any - ideas?" asked the lithely muscled D'arc as she stretched in a particular manner.

"Yes, they make a cute couple," said T'ctac. "We ought to prepare a feast for them as soon as possible and - Did I say something wrong?"

* * *

Hotaru sat back in the shade for the most part and tried to stay out of everyone's way. She helped with lunch, and explained the use of a number of items from Earth to a number of the refugees, but the majority of work was being handled by others. The soldiers handled setting up perimeters, the scouts went to work investigating and acquiring resources, the refugees set up a lot of the living arrangements. There really wasn't that much for her to do, even if those people around her would let her do it.

When she saw Ranma hauling water from the creek, her gaze went elsewhere and she blushed a lot - drawing a few comments from those around her.

She couldn't help but remember a certain scene.

* * *

_Earlier:_  
"So you're just giving us all this, not keeping a few for yourself?" asked O'Neill, holding up a golden armband decorated with Egyptian symbols.

"(No,)" said Ranma, nodding his head towards Hotaru. "(There was only one thing important to me, and I brought her back.)"

"Yeesh, how saccharine," said O'Neill, making a face. Then he seemed to realize he was being glared at by every female in the room. Except one whose gaze had seemed to lock onto Ranma with that statement.

Ranma shrugged, somehow missing it all. If they didn't find where he'd stashed any of the weapons he'd been hiding, he wasn't going to say a darn thing.

* * *

_present:_  
By the time evening began to fall, the encampment was fully prepared. The perimeter was being watched, there were supplies piled up, campfires lit, fish were being cooked, and people were watching in fascination that two full moons were rising.

When a Stargate team went to another planet, they met Jaffa from time to time. Some of the Jaffa were merely local citizenry, and many were soldiers, but the ones that they met tended to be adults. This was not due to any major birth rate problem, or an absence of 'childhood' from a Jaffa's life, but was instead the result of the fact that, as with other places, children tended to be protected. Whether it had to do with meeting strangers, or dealing with enemies, children weren't the type of individuals most likely to be dealt with. After all, one did not negotiate trade, train, or fight with a child.

So it was understandable that some children had been missed. With the constant movement of people, the non-combat oriented situation, and the simple instinct to let children be, there just wasn't much concern given them, save for their safety, and the chores that they had to do. But like all those of their age, Jaffa children were not normally staid.

They got curious naturally, and since this was to be a home to them, there was a big draw to know it all.

That was why the group of pre-teen Jaffa were wandering the mountain pass that they had just found. It was large, with it almost being a canyon with the size of the walls around them. But as they walked along, they found something that surprised them, and that was not quite what they would have expected.

"I thought that you said that the Tau'ri thought that this planet had nothing on it, Syral," one boy said to the girl next to him.

She gave him a flat look. "That's what they _said_, Rin'cyc. Of course they might be wrong."

"Okay... Then we have to decide on what to do. Hey Tyv'ac, you have an idea?"

"Actually, I do," the last of their group murmured, "Let us go and inform them of what we have found."

"Do you think that we have to..?"

"Yes, we do. Look at it."

"Ahh... Good point."

* * *

"Are you telling me that they reported that the _children_ found something on this planet?" General Hammond asked, "Something that is important?"

The night shift tech nodded. "Apparently, the children have been informing them that something 'enormous' is out there. A team is going out there to find out."

"I see... Inform me when we know anything."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

O'Neill stopped as he turned the corner in front of the discovery and raised a brow. "Okay. I'm impressed."

"I am too sir. It looks like it was built with great care, sir," Carter commented, "The simple engineering prowess that would go into it is amazing..."

"It appears to have been abandoned long ago, and yet it has stayed together, remarkably with little damage considering the time," Teal'c put in as he looked around at the massive, if broken structures that were before them.

"Of course. To last this long, the ones who had built this had to be... amazingly good."

"That's all fine and dandy, but we need to find some sort of clue as to what it really is. Daniel?" Jack asked simply.

"It appears that they are right. Most of this damage isn't from time... Though it is most likely alien to us."

"We're on an alien planet. _Everything_ is going to be 'alien'."

"Ah... yeah..."

"Can we get beyond the obvious, please?"

"Sure thing," the archeologist commented, and turned his attention back to what looked to be an ancient city.

* * *

The first, overriding, priority was the establishment of the village. Mostly it was the refugees doing the work there, it was to be their home after all.

Earth had given over this world to the refugees, and General Hammond was loathe to back out of a deal - but that appeared to be unnecessary. One of the higher representitives of the village immediately set out to hammer out the details of a treaty where joint ownership of the ruined city took place. That way, if something nasty came out of the ruins - the SGC would have to help fight the battle.

Everyone agreed that D'luma showed great promise as a contract lawyer.

* * *

"This makes no sense," said Daniel Jackson at a noon meeting the next day. "These columns are Ionic style - which was late Greek. These streets look more like Roman, and these ancient swords are more along what you could find being turned out in Toledo in the 1400s. None of this fits together!"

"So?" asked Jack O'Neill.

"The System Lords weren't active in Earth's history late enough for this," answered Jackson.

"Perhaps it's a parallel culture," pointed out Carter. "The stained glass window for example - instead of lead it has some complex polymer."

"So how old is this city?" asked O'Neill, hoping for an answer he'd understand.

Captain Anvil, one of the recently acquired research specialists, cleared his throat. "The polymer is organic in origin, and we were able to date it from the fragments that remain. The window in question was apparently made roughly six hundred thousand years ago."

O'Neill blinked. "Six?"

"Six hundred thousand years," said Captain Anvil. "We're studying the polymer, it may involve buckyball molecular architecture. Naturally we're very interested in a building material that can survive even a portion of that time period."

"Of more interest is that the city appears to have been attacked from above," said Specialist Silverberg. "Whatever it was - it hit fast. All the impacts appear to have occurred within a short time frame and there were no survivors. No attempts to bury the dead, clear rubble, or anything else you'd expect if there had been survivors."

"One of those pyramid ships maybe?" asked O'Neill.

"Maybe, it was definitely energy discharges - some of the craters show signs of the rock being superheated. Not all though, we're continuing analysis," said Silverberg, apparently absorbed in reading his PDA.

"What about the city's level of technology or if they were human?" prodded O'Neill.

"As near as we can tell, the System Lords didn't put the Stargate here," said Carter. "According to Teal'c - a race called the Ancients actually developed the Stargates. Whoever the inhabitants were, they were apparently interesting enough to these Ancients to put a link on the Stargate system here. As for their technology, Captain Pratchett?"

The captain stood and consulted his notes. "Due to extreme age and being exposed to the weather, we've only found a few things left. We're guessing fairly advanced based on materials technology. In addition to the organic polymer, there are things like this."

O'Neill took the dull metal cube and looked it over. "What is it?"

"Unknown," responded Captain Pratchett. "The metal itself has resisted all attempts to score or damage it. It seems to be hollow but seamless."

"Hmmmm," said O'Neill. "Okay, so does anyone have anything else to add. So far all we know is that someone attacked them and they had stuff that lasts a long time."

"Well, sir, there's one more thing. The doorways are all built for something shorter than human size," said Captain Pratchett.

* * *

It stirred as a familiar presence approached the resting place.

Created for war, it had been disabled prior to the attack that had destroyed the city it was to protect. When systems had been restored, the city was already gone and its people slain.

Sensors read those above, passively, cautiously. Do nothing to betray its presence.

Sadly, these were not of the Enemy. There was one who was close, but there appeared to be no direct match.

It had repaired itself as best as possible in the intervening eons, sleeping most of the time. In that time it had determined that the Enemy had not come from the nearby Stargate. The Ancients had not warned of an enemy from that direction, but it had wanted to be sure. The Enemy had come from space, or from some para-dimension, but had been airborne at the very least. The Enemy had also apparently gotten to the command codes and shut it down.

It was very displeased that such had happened, and had spent many years updating itself and the bunker. Available materials were insufficient to restore full functioning, but it had remembered the Stargate and diverted materials to a project that it had later abandoned due to not having an adequate knowledge of the addresses or how to access them. The designers had not seen a need.

The new ones were not the Enemy, the energy signatures were not even a close match except in one case. That did not make them an Ally.

Though it would be nice to have people around again.

* * *

Hotaru paused in her preparations, feeling as if she had been scrutinized for a moment, and then the gaze had turned elsewhere.

Ranma had paused too, and for the same reason. Then he returned to his task.

* * *

"There's that energy spike," said Captain Gaiman. "Whatever it is, it's very faint."

"It's nearby then," said Specialist Asimov. "What about Corporal Norton?"

"Damn cute, even if she is into fantasy novels," agreed Captain Gaiman. "Give her pointy ears and she could pass for an elf though."

"She's short enough, I didn't think they let people that short into the military," said Specialist Asimov. "Have you seen that one medic?"

"Ah, that would be Corporal Chalker. I've heard she could be a little... weird," said Captain Gaiman.

"A little weird can be nice," responded the elderly engineer, not realizing they were walking past the entry to a hidden cavern in which waited a powerful war machine.

* * *

It was big. Over 10,000 tons of armored tank armed with weapons that could have played "connect the dot" on the two moons orbitting that world.

Not only could it not fit through a Stargate, one of its treads wouldn't fit through a Stargate.

The project it had undertaken was a small version of itself, which would have been something it could send through a Stargate. The remote would then be able to determine what was on the other side, then return and upload the information.

Opening a chamber door, it waited for the two. This way enough information would be accumulated. Enough was completed, but would the bait be accepted?

That one seemed to be of the Enemy, but data was scanty as the scraps of data gleaned from other sources were often inconclusive and very dated. Few of the remnants had been intact and those had been scavenged by the work units long ago.

Now it was a matter of watching and waiting. Something it had practiced for long years.

* * *

"Professor Asimov?"

"It's a tank. A baby alien tank but a tank nonetheless."

"It doesn't have any weapons that I can see."

"Armored shell, these could be targetting computers. Hmmmm. How very interesting."

"Professor?"

Professor Asimov's glasses gleamed as he gave off a manic grin. He clapped his hands together and began rubbing them, somehow giving off the impression of some gleeful gnome confronted with a pile of unclaimed gemstones. "Oh yes. I think this will be very interesting."

* * *

"Something was here, but whoever it was just grabbed surviving technology. All we're left with are scraps apparently too wrecked to be of use," said Captain Gaiman.

"So mainly what we have to work with is their materials technology," noted Daniel Jackson. "I take it this is fairly advanced?"

Gaiman handed over a fist-sized chunk of dark blue crystal.

"What is this?" asked O'Neill after Jackson had passed the stone onto him.

"Star sapphire," explained Gaiman. "We'd need a gemologist to cut it properly, but that was a chunk of a flooring found in what we think used to be a private residence."

"They tiled their bathrooms with sapphires?" asked Jack, who wasn't exactly an expert on gems but thought that sounded fairly impressive.

"Something like that," admitted Captain Gaiman. "Just in the one home so far. We're pretty sure that the inhabitants weren't human but might have been near-human."

"How much is this worth?" asked Jack, hefting the chunk of stone.

"Sirs?" a Corporal dashed into the room. "One of the teams found something. You'd better have a look."

* * *

The outer chamber where the mini had been built was small and self-contained. The back of the cavern looked like natural cavern but was actually three meter thick doors leading to the BOLO's chamber.

It waited, passive sensors collecting data as these newcomers found the mini and grew excited.

The BOLO had never heard of Troy or the wooden horse, but was familiar with the tactic. At present, it didn't know if these were enemies or not, but it was prepared for either.

* * *

In the normal course of events, anyone under the age of eighteen would never be told about anything really secret by military people. Even when one had an eighteen-year old, the most one would usually tell that person would be something on the order of "Stand here, and guard this door. No one gets through." The child of a scientist would normally be only told that their father or mother was working on something important.

But then, life for Hotaru was different. She'd lived with her father as he worked for the U.S. government, and been so close to the situation that she'd been kidnapped by enemy forces. That was not normal by any means, and she'd proven that she was not a normal girl. They could have still kept her in the dark about certain situations, but this was a polite and responsible young lady who had the affection of the soldiers that she'd grown up with, and the loyalty of a bunch of Jaffa who thought that she was a goddess.

Ordering someone's goddess around in front of that person was not a good idea even when one knew that the 'divinity' in question was not such a being.

However, as she'd always wanted to be helpful and kind, she helped out, trying to stay out of the way. She'd been assisting wherever she could, and knew that she had too little knowledge to start poking around without supervision. Of course, the Jaffa simply thought that she was more of a benevolent 'diety', but she didn't mind doing what she could. And part of that was carrying lunches to those who needed them.

So, she, being the nice girl that she was, brought out something to the group analyzing the latest find. "Here you all go," she said brightly, "Something to eat!"

Sam poked her head up from a laptop screen and blinked. "You brought us food?"

"Well... Yeah. I thought that you'd be hungry, and you didn't come to get something, so..."

"That was thoughtful of you. Thanks."

"You're welcome," Hotaru replied, blushing a bit under the praise.

"You know, now that I think about it, it has been a while since I ate. What about you, Daniel?"

"Huh?" the archeologist grunted without looking over the materials that he was looking at. "What? Whatever you say Sam..."

"So I take it that you aren't listening to what I'm saying?"

"No, not really..."

"Daniel!"

"What? Sorry. Did you need something?" Daniel asked.

"I need to eat. What about you?"

"Oh. Yeah. Food. I'm famished. Guess we're going to have to get something, huh?"

"No, we're not. Hotaru's brought us something to eat," Carter told him.

"She did? She did. Sorry about that. My mind was off on the work..."

"I know the feeling. This is interesting stuff."

"It is?" Hotaru asked.

"Yeah. I mean, there is a lot that we can learn here."

"That's good, isn't it?"

"That's _very_ good," Daniel put in. "But it doesn't mean that we're ignoring you helping us. Sorry about that..."

"It's okay... Dad's always doing that. I have to bring him stuff too so that he doesn't forget to eat when he's working really hard..."

"That's about it..."

"I'm sure that whatever it is, you'll do real good with it."

"I hope so. This find is... Well, it does a lot."

"Like gives us technology and data that we can use right now," Sam continued.

The girl blinked back. "Oh?"

"Look for yourself."

Hotaru turned and faced the way that the blonde woman gestured towards. What she saw was a small tank, which looked to actually be a miniature of something bigger. But she had a definite reaction to it, and it wasn't bad by any means. "How CUTE!"

"Excuse me?"

"It's such a little guy... Not all big and noisy like the big tanks back home. He's like their little brother."

"That's one way to look at it. You think of this as a 'he'?"

"I guess. It just seems right. He reminds me of that little general guy that we learned about in class... The French one, who had Europe all mad and always had his hand in his pocket..."

"Napoleon?"

"That's him. Say..."

Daniel raised a brow. "What is it Hotaru?"

"I know what we should call him. Bonaparte!" the violet eyed girl chirped, "It's a good name for such a cute little guy!"

The two adults looked at each other and shrugged.

* * *

The arrival of the one noted as potential enemy had stimulated these sentients into conversation. The language was not that of the creator-race, and the distance was such that the Stargate's translation effect was not present, but it was easy for the BOLO to work out the basics providing that dialogue commenced and there was time to gain a wide sampling.

The mini popped a top hatch after the potential enemy had made physical contact. Inside a number of sensor devices would be able to probe, while continuing to gather information about the sentients and their civilization and their language.

Then a device was hooked into the mini, and the BOLO would have laughed if that had been possible. It was a very very primitive computer that had a large number of useful files - including language references!

* * *

Sam and Daniel exchanged a glance. "'Bonaparte'?!"

"'Bonaparte'?" asked the guard at the door.

"'Bonaparte'?" asked the guard outside the door.

"'Bonaparte'?" asked the cook passing by the tent.

"'Bonaparte'?" asked one of the Jaffa who'd heard the cook.

*Bonaparte?* wondered the BOLO in the cavern.

"Unnn," said Hotaru with a nod. "Bonaparte!"

"Waitaminute, we're getting power readings," said Daniel with alarm. "Something is booting up!"

"Hotaru, get away from it," advised Sam.

"He's such a cute tank, I'm sure he's just getting acquainted," said Hotaru with apparently no concern whatsoever. "Isn't that right, Bonaparte?"

_Pshhhhh!_ went a large hatch in the top.

Daniel's jaw dropped.

Sam began rubbing one temple as if she were getting a headache. "It's responding to being named?"

Hotaru cautiously peered in. "Hey, there's a seat here!"

Daniel quickly displaced the girl from the hatchway. "It doesn't look finished somehow. There's something like a terminal connection though. Sam, hand me my laptop."

"You think you can connect to the system?" asked Samantha Carter, handing over the computer.

"Yeah, this doesn't look too odd - similar to a DHD in some respects, and if I connect this I should be able to get some information." Daniel set about making the connections, hanging over the lip.

* * *

The BOLO watched and listened, going through all the records with the sort of speed an AI could manage. Ah, this odd word - 'bone apart' was actually 'Bonaparte' - the name of an obscure military leader who was short but apparently fairly charismatic. For a name for the mini, it would do.

While information on their technology and culture was accessed, there were gaps that were clearly deliberate. Fortunately, in a journal were answers to most of the questions that the BOLO had sought answers to. In particular, one of the recent entries caught the AI Tank's attention.

* * *

# Nobody else seems to have put it together. In the conference room when Ranma vanished, there was the image of a girl. When I saw the picture the Chulak had made, I noticed the resemblence immediately and wondered why I hadn't noticed before.

The image was of Hotaru wearing that skating outfit.

I've known Hotaru since just prior to Abydos. Hotaru's father was one of the scientists working on the project and he's worked out a fair amount of the mechanics of the Stargate - though it remains theoretical at present. Hotaru is a sweet girl but a bit shy. She's become a favorite with many of the staff, and even a few of the more grizzled old Marine Sergeants have been known to soften a bit around her.

I've known her for quite a long time and the revelations on Chulak don't seem to fit.

On the other hand, her behavior - related from the Chulak again - does fit. Instead of the more typical 'gods' of their experience, Hotaru acts like a perfectly normal nice Japanese girl thrust suddenly into some very strange experiences. I think she stopped insisting that she wasn't a goddess after about three hours of seeing the Chulak people smirking at her protests.

If her powers are real, then she is in great danger. There are people in the government who would seek to control that power, and the System Lords would certainly see someone who could bring down one of their ships as a threat.

With the rescue of the slaves and oppressed from Chulak, finding a safe world to set them up upon has become a priority. If we simply placed them on Earth, there would be difficulties in security that would compromise the Stargate Project - at least according to the military. So we need to find a world free from the Goa'uld like Ra or Apothis.#

* * *

The AI went over the records and scanned. This young female humanoid was the potential Enemy, but one that had been raised among the culture of these 'Earthers' - and was therefore an ally of these.

Previous records revealed that this 'Chulak' was a world run by something called 'Goa'uld' and that these 'Goa'uld' were apparently those who conquered and enslaved other cultures.

More data would have to be collected, and these records corroborated. Until that time, the BOLO decided to keep its existence secret.

The mini would be quite useful until that point, and perhaps afterwards.

* * *

"It copied all the files!" Daniel said as he realized what all the flashing screens had meant.

"You've only had it connected a minute at most," protested Sam.

"Is that bad?" asked Hotaru.

#I don't think so.#

Sam looked around. "Is there a kid in here?"

Hotaru pouted. She didn't consider herself a kid though everyone insisted on treating her like one.

Daniel also looked around. "Where did that voice come from?"

#What voice?#

"Sirs?" Corporal Halderman made a gesture towards the object in the center of the room.

Sam looked at Daniel, Daniel looked at Sam. They slowly turned towards the object Hotaru was still standing next to.

Hotaru considered briefly and patted the hatch lid. "Hi. I'm Hotaru. Do you want to be friends?"

#Sure#, said the tank in a little boy's voice. #My name is Bonaparte. Do you know any games?#

"Colonel O'Neill is going to plotz when he hears about this," offered Corporal Halderman in a tone that indicated he'd met the individual.

Neither Daniel nor Sam could disagree.

* * *

Samantha Carter respected her commanding officer completely and utterly. He was a man who would get himself killed to help someone else, and was still a solid team leader who could be counted on in any situation. Things might not always be easy for them, but one could not doubt his skill and instinct.

It was just a fact that she'd never thought of him as a tech person. For her, scientific problems were just the sort of thing that she liked to get challenged with. It was almost certain that Daniel was focused on his own work just as much. But they made it work, and it was apparently working very well.

However, she didn't hold out much hope that she'd ever see him actually work on any sort of technical problem that others had already worked out.

So, as she stood in front of O'Neill, she was well aware of just what was at stake. "Sir. As I've told you, this is beyond our technology. It's still functioning, and has proven to be a major possible benefit. We can learn a great deal, despite its lack of direction, and will garner us all sorts of advanced technology that can be used, or at least, analyzed to find out it's basic components."

"Carter?" Jack asked sharply.

"Sorry sir. I'll try to put it in simple terms."

"Don't bother."

"Okay..."

"So we've got an Artificial Intelligence tank with no weapons systems but places for two to be installed, made of some composite armor a thousand years more advanced than anything we've got, is capable of speeds in excess of 95mph, has a 'stealth mode'..."

"Bonaparte refers to it as 'Sneaky Mode' sir," Carter commented.

"Great... It's naming itself. 'Bonaparte' is not quite the image that I would go for... But I like it all the same."

"You like this, sir?"

"Of course. We can learn a lot, and... I did so want something cool as a kid. This just might be the beginning..."

Blinking slightly, Sam stared at him for a moment, and then just shrugged.

* * *

The spy waited, knowing that the time to open the gate to Lord Apophis' troops would come soon enough. Once that gate was opened, then the loyal Jaffa could take out the heretics. It would mean waiting for the proper moment, but when it finally came, then the trap would be sprung.

Though, for reasons the spy couldn't identify, there seemed to be a chill in the air...

* * *

"General Hammond, this is our newest recruit. Bonaparte, General Hammond," Jack O'Neill said over his com link back to the SGC. The General's brows raised up in response. "A tank?"

"A talking mini one with a lot of... spunk."

# Hello there!#

"See? Ready and eager."

General Hammond wondered if he should pinch the bridge of his nose, but subsided. "Would someone go to my desk and get the large bottle of Maalox please?" he asked.

* * *

Those of Chulak stared.

Those of the US Military stared.

Small forest animals stared.

_ZOOOM!_

A green one-man tank, sized to fit through a Stargate, went by at about 45mph. Those of Chulak noticed their goddess sticking her head up from the turret, while those of "Tauri" origin noticed the little girl Hotaru peering out of the mobile weapon's hatch.

Colonel Jack O'Neill, hanging from the outside, tried to look as if he was in command of the situation. As opposed to hanging onto the outside of a tank travelling at 45mph while techs tried to figure out the capabilities of said tank.

"SQUEAK!" _crunch_

Evolution favored those small forest animals who knew enough to get out of the way of tanks coming at a high rate of speed.

* * *

"So your purpose is what exactly?" asked Colonel O'Neill a few minutes later, wondering how the hell you interrogated a talking tank.

#I'm just a kid,# admitted Bonaparte. #Why are you asking me?#

"Operating theory is that 'Bonaparte' was an unused unit placed in storage," said Daniel Jackson. "Probably the first bootup was when Hotaru somehow activated it."

"Daniel," griped Jack.

The little boy voice sounded pleading. #If I give you something you want, will you give me something?#

General Hammond decided that the bright lights were unnecessary and ordered them taken away. "What do you want?"

#I want to go with you. I don't like being alone. I... like you. Well, most of you.#

"Hmmmm. Just enough space for a Vulcan auto-cannon," said Corporal Haldeman, looking over the scans.

General Hammond had thought about this ever since he had heard the initial report. "SG-1 will be separate and going on to other missions. I'm currently considering the possibility of forming 'SG-X' - an exploration team comprised of various allied individuals who are not members of the US Armed Forces. If such a project is accomplished, and unless something happens to cancel those plans, we could have an opening for you on that team. What is it that you're offering?"

#If Daniel would please reconnect his computer to my main board, I will download the specs on part of my construction.#

"What part?" asked General Hammond, eyeing the tank.

The little boy's voice turned technical and precise. #I have self-repair files, and the necessary steps to make some of the parts. Many of my systems have artificial muscles for movement, a three-layer sandwich that responds to an electrical charge by contracting. Thin strands respond faster. Thicker strands are stronger. From what I've seen you do not have this technology but it is within your capabilities of manufacture.#

"Artificial muscles?" Doctor Frazier asked, realizing why she'd been called into this. Someone had obviously noted that the tank had systems similar to biological ones.

"Power armor?" said Corporal Haldeman briefly, exchanging a glance with Corporal Heinlein at the door. NOW they were talking some serious hardware.

General Hammond smiled. "I see. And incidently this would allow us to repair you if you were damaged."

#Oh. Gee, that's right. That would be a good thing.#

"We'll see," said the General, not wanting to make promises he couldn't keep.

* * *

The woman from Chulak checked a third time around her. No one was near. She pressed buttons quickly.

The DHD locked the appropriate symbols, and the path to Chulak was open.

She would tell her god about these infidels and would be greatly rewarded.

* * *

The BOLO considered and continued preparations.

The few remaining images of the creator's devices had provided some measure of intel about the Enemy.

The Enemy who had come and destroyed the colony had attacked with some form of mind control/transmutation attack. Once controlled by the Enemy, the very people who had been in charge of the city's defenses had shut off those defenses. Including the BOLO.

There had been no warning, no declaration of war, no quarter or mercy bestowed. Infiltration had been accomplished quickly, and there had been less than a few nanoseconds to realize the attack was occurring before destruction had taken the colony.

Costume match with the "cheerleader outfit" displayed in that picture (copies of which were now for sale in the marketplace) indicated that the girl Hotaru was of the same species/capabilities, but apparently not allied.

There was the possibility, also to be considered, that as the recruitment/transformation process apparently involved some form of mental enslavement - that the Enemy troops were also mind controlled.

Though of alien manufacture, the BOLO understood honor. This was an Enemy without honor, it had reached that decision long ago and the new data corroborated those conclusions.

Another energy spike indicated that the Stargate had opened and closed, but it had been doing so regularly since the new village had begun. The difference in this case was that the drone had detected a single adult female acting in a furtive manner.

The unit didn't know what to make of that right now, so simply filed away the detail for later.

* * *

Tech Sergeant Albert "Al" McCaffrey (cousin to the botanist who had recommended him) grinned like a kid with a new toy. Not because he had been recruited as a "retired" tank mechanic whose job had recently been dealing with All Terrain Vehicles until a certain phone call.

Mainly he was grinning because he was working with Leona Ozaki, a girl who managed to be buff and lithe simultaneously. Okay, she was a Marine and probably had "Semper Fi" and "Gung Ho" tattooed on her somewhere. Her personality was frequently abrasive and louder than he liked. One never really became an "ex"-Marine, though supposedly she had to join the Police. That hadn't lasted long.

"How are you coming with that rear gun?" asked Leona from her position on the turret.

"It's a Vulcan 12.7mm," corrected Al.

"It's something to clear obstacles with," muttered Leona.

"We'll only have space for a box of five hundred shells, that won't last long," said Al. "How does that feel?"

#Okay, I guess. Uhm, that still doesn't fit.#

Leona stopped and looked at the cannon she'd been trying to fit through the holes again. "Okay, I give up. We'll try the next size down."

* * *

"So what's with this bit about a separate unit?" asked Colonel O'Neill.

"What do you know about the changing situation in Washington?" asked General Hammond.

"I didn't know a situation was changing," said Jack. "I've been a little busy."

"It's been out for some time about Professor Tomoe being on the payroll for his expertise in multiple universe theory and wormhole mechanics," said the General. "Not that I can follow the math once he gets going."

"Not many people can," agreed Jack.

"I have a few contacts, apparently there are those in Washington who feel that foreign nationals involved is not a tolerable situation," said the General, his expression indicating his distaste for the politics. "Especially now that we're getting some results from the program. So I'm trying to shift things around so that someone can't go over my head and cause problems for these new allies. I've little doubt that Professor Tomoe can hold his own in front of a board of inquiry - but what about Hotaru or those Saotomes?"

"And if it came out about what we've seen 'Saotome & Son' pull off, they might be made to quietly vanish?" asked O'Neill.

"I don't like admitting it, but we both know that there are some fairly unscrupulous people in Washington. Our recent successes may have caused word of the project to circulate in some quarters, and more interference could be on the way as a result," grumped the General.

"If they knew how successful, that would be - bad," admitted Jack, wincing.

"If we were an abject failure, nobody would want to touch us," agreed the General, "the more successful - the more people want in on it. Especially the sort in Washington. Fortunately with the few successes I've passed on information about, we have some clout in trying to keep things under control as well."

"..." frowned Colonel Jack O'Neill.

"Something else bothering you?" asked the General.

"I wanted the tank on my team," admitted Jack, sounding like a little boy who wasn't going to get the Christmas present he'd wanted.

"All in good time, Colonel," said the General, though his expression had changed to something that indicated he knew exactly how the Colonel felt.

* * *

A/N: the BOLO concept of a self-aware tank was first put out by Keith Laumer. This isn't the same thing, but the term BOLO is used to give the characters in-story (and you, gentle readers) an immediate concept/visualization to be able to reference.


	4. Chapter 4: every Refuge has its price

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_SciDISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Also note that some text in the original came in different colors, but doesn't support that function as far as i can tell.

Chapter 4: Every Refuge has its price.

* * *

The Goa'uld were a powerful race, with technology taken from many different places in the galaxy. Each of them was naturally arrogant, with a supreme sense of self, and never truly being satisfied with their current level of power. To be one of them was to be ruthless, nasty and utterly calculating. They were not afraid to do whatever it took, no matter how disturbing the act might be, to gain power for themselves.

But they sure as hell weren't good losers.

Apophis sat on a jeweled throne, not because there was anything wrong with him, but because he wanted to. The symbiote would fix the host's body, restoring it to the health it'd had before a burst of energy had nearly seared the flesh from his back. There was no problem in standing, but he had little desire to let the weak state of his legs bother him.

There were more important things to do at the moment. He pounded his fist onto an armrest and glared at the Jaffa before him. "Tell me how this could be possible!"

"I am sorry to say that we can not tell how that happened, my Lord," his First Prime replied, "All that we know is that the girl gained some sort of energy that she used to strike back."

"And how is it that no one noticed this before?"

"The power did not show up in the scans, my Lord."

"That is not good enough. Is there not a single shred of information that you can give me?" Apophis snarled.

"There is not much to tell my Lord. Only stories seem to come up in any relevance, and they differ from world to world."

"Stories ..?"

"Yes, my Lord. They go from simple magic tricks to people able to pull the power of the stars themselves to them... ERK!"

Giving his Prime an icy look, the System Lord continued to use the hand device to punish the Jaffa. "I do not care for the prattle of slaves. That girl, along with the Tau'ri and the shol'vah that used to have your post are out there somewhere. Find them. I wish to teach them what happens when one defies one's god..."

"Ye... ye... yes.., my Lord..."

"Good. And do not return without a means for bringing me their heads."

* * *

In the complicated chess game of Goa'uld politics, one only feigned respect. It was all plays of power, with each Goa'uld having a station depending on the strength that they could wield. When one lost even the appearance of power, it was almost a certainty that another Goa'uld would try to take advantage of that fact.

Apophis had just gotten himself rather severely thrashed by a single incident.

Sokar and Chronos were not the only ones to be looking towards him with great interest. Others were as well, with each of them considering what they could do now that the System Lord was floundering. If they were able to, they'd snap up whatever they could within a moment. And as they saw that their chances were coming, the 'vultures' were circling Apophis.

* * *

"My Lord," the First Prime said as he came into the chamber, leading someone else with him.

Apophis gave the man a dark look. "I thought I told you to go find me a way to strike back at those who would dare to defy me."

"And I did, my Lord."

"What? By bringing me a mere woman?"

"That is exactly it, my Lord."

"What can she give in this situation?"

"I just came from the world where the Tau'ri took the traitors," the woman replied.

For a moment, Apophis merely stood there, but slowly a smile crossed his features. "Now that is something that I wish to know more about," he commented.

* * *

"I am still loyal to you, mighty Apophis," said the woman, kneeling. "This other has admitted she is not a god, and so I have come here to offer you what I might."

"So speak to me of this encampment of my enemies," commanded Apophis.

"I saw not the coordinates for the world of the Taur'i, nor how they opened the barrier they have placed upon their Stargate but I did observe the symbols used to access the world that these Taur'i are using for those who betrayed you." Setis kept her head lowered before her god, showing Apophis proper deference.

"That would be a start," said Apophis, eager to avenge this insult.

"I have heard them plan to make barriers to travel much as the Taur'i world now has," admitted Sethis, "yet due to some problem of manufacture do not have a barrier made ready for this world of those who fled your wise rule."

* * *

"New Types?" asked the Senator.

"Yes, sir, the doctor's files are pretty clear that she's convinced of this," said the scientist.

"Exactly what is a New Type?" asked another Senator.

"You're familiar with the old model of evolution?" asked Professor Anthony, shoving the qualms he had about his own survival to the side. There were always rumors about those who attended these 'black cabinet' meetings giving testimony and then being quietly eliminated thereafter. "The ones showing a progression of forms from ape to man? It's wrong. Oversimplified to the point of nearly total inaccuracy. Senator Kinsey is not yourself, Senator McAllen. Idiosyncrasies between individuals on the genetic level are merely the typical method of evolution - those traits which are passed on via children are considered viable. Those who do not produce children are Darwinically dead-ends."

"This has a point?" asked Senator Kinsey.

"It's a radical thought, though popular among some, that sometimes evolution jumps track," said the Professor. "That the genetic sequences stabilize at certain configurations and that this effect produces a discrete species. A 'New Type' is one of the terms used to describe _homo sapiens II_, the next stable genetic level."

"So these are 'superior' humans?" asked Senator Kinsey, familiar sneer appearing.

"No, they are the precursors to what humanity is naturally becoming," said Professor Anthony. "Neither of these subjects would truly be a New Type, it is the children they'd have that would be that stable genetic progenitor. That is, if the physician is correct in her theory."

Senator McAllen cleared his throat before speaking. "That's what these leaked files indicate. What other theories are there?"

"First, that the data and records are faked," indicated the Professor. "We can discount those. There is too much corroboration of the hard data, while interpretations can vary wildly. General Hammond and several of the SGC members believe that these odd abilities are the result of alien experimentation with human genetics. Essentially that this 'New Type' stage was a set of coded genetic instructions designed to continually improve themselves until reaching a threshold, where they would manifest. The actual coding might be in the 'junk gene' sets found in normal human chromosomes and be fairly widespread at this point."

"Thank you, Professor. We'll contact you if we need further clarification," said Senator McAllen. When the geneticist had left, he leaned forward to regard his compatriots. "This Stargate Project has gone from a waste of time to something increasingly important."

"I still dispute that," said Senator Kinsey.

"It's all well enough," said a third individual breaking her silence, "though I think that if the project may actually provide some benefit - it is better that it is under our jurisdiction."

"That might be difficult, the military controls the Stargate Project currently," said Senator McAllen.

"Leave that to me," said Senator Kinsey.

* * *

"Hey, you kids! Leave that cat alone!"

"Meow?!"

* * *

"-and so I have brought this information to you, mighty Ares, that you may prove that you are the stronger god and lay low your enemies," said Setis.

Ares looked over the groveling woman before his projected image. Confirmation of rumors and now a chance for him to capture Apophis and all his holdings.

Things were looking up.

* * *

"Here's the initial personnel files on the 'SG-X' project," said Sergeant Laumer, setting what he had on the General's desk.

General Hammond gave a dry look to the large stack of papers, then over at the USAF muscleboy.

"Right, the brief version," said Laumer with a shrug.

"Okay, we've got Al McCaffrey. Cousin to that botany specialist, he was recommended for a position when we were looking for construction equipment operators." Laumer glanced down at his notes. "He was in the Army as a tank mechanic, got out and ended up working in Amarillo as an ATV and tractor mechanic. Nothing outstanding in his service record."

General Hammond nodded. "What about this Ozaki?"

"Born and raised in San Francisco, really into guns and 'Soldier Of Fortune' and brawling at an early age. Went into the Marines, dishonorable discharge three years later. Frequently got into fights with personnel from other services, apparently not that tolerant of alcohol - violent drunk. Went on the wagon, tried to join the San Fransisco Police, her record came out and she was booted out after another incident where her temper came into play. Recruited because she is apparently darn good with weapons and with her fists, and she has apparently been alcohol-free for two years."

"So we need someone to rein her in for diplomatic contacts," noted General Hammond.

"There's Hotaru Tomoe, though what skills she can bring are unknown at present," continued Sergeant Laumer. "Possibly a support role, though there are a list of Jaffa and people of Chulak who are apparently willing to follow her banner wherever she goes."

"True, and her presence is desirable for other reasons," admitted General Hammond.

"There's Ranma Saotome and Genma Saotome, though from what I've heard it might be best to keep the elder of the two on Refuge training Hotaru's Jaffa," continued Laumer. "The two apparently attack each other on a regular basis and its upsetting to some of Hotaru's followers."

"I see," said General Hammond.

"Ranma would be the more logical choice for away missions with Hotaru involved as I understand it is hard to keep him away from her," said Laumer, looking over his notes.

"Yes, that is one way of putting it," responded the General with a fair amount of irony in his voice. Or was it resignation?

"The two of them are listed as ninja?" asked Sergeant Laumer, having not witnessed either of the two doing anything of note.

"Close enough," said General Hammond. "Special Ops."

"Ah," said Laumer, that fitting in better with what he knew. "There's also Bonaparte. Fascinating. A child-like AI tank. Seems to be getting Ozaki to open up some."

"Yes," said General Hammond. "The idea I had for SG-X would be a semi-independent unit using the Refuge Stargate and with Professor Tomoe working from that end."

"Feasible once the problems with setting up power generators and equipment for his lab is completed, but that will take some time," admitted Laumer.

"What of the other candidates?" asked General Hammond, thinking they still had several specialist areas not addressed and that the whole idea of an independent, international, if incommunicado, group might help soothe troubled diplomatic waters later on should word of the Stargate get out.

"Well, there's," began Sergeant Laumer, "Shion Uzuki, a Korean American who works for Vector Industries and has signed the appropriate non-disclosure documentation."

* * *

"'Vector Industries'? Isn't that one of those high end corporations?" Hammond asked, sounding dubious at best.

"Yes sir. They are a major researcher and manufacturer of high level technologies, along with being a leader in A.I. development. And they are an important defense contractor."

"Then what will keep her from sharing what she learns in spite of that documentation? We both know how easy it can be to 'forget' such things exist."

Laumer had to nod in agreement. "That is true sir, and I do realise that it's happened before..."

"So? What will stop her?"

"Miss Uzuki herself, sir."

"Excuse me?"

"She is a woman with moral values that she holds close to her. And they include the idea that when one makes a promise like this, one keeps it. Plus, she has an affinity for mechanical devices, and is very comfortable with dealing with them. No major attitude problems, though she does have a tendency to be stubborn on matters of work and safety."

"I'd rather have that than someone who doesn't care about such things and gets them killed."

"I think those in the squad would too," the sergeant admitted.

* * *

"So this woman up and vanishes, and no one notices it until now?" O'Neill asked idly.

Teal'c merely raised a brow. "Her presence was barely noted as she did not socialise with the others. As far as the others tell it, several of her peers did try to speak with her, but she only used enough words to answer them."

"Hey, I'm not blaming you guys. It's not you're supposed to be watching each other instead of making homes."

"Indeed."

"Still, one has to wonder about something," Daniel murmured.

"What is that, Daniel Jackson?"

"If this woman's gotten through the Stargate, how'd she make it in the first place?"

"I think I can answer that one," Carter put in, "You see, somehow she found out that at least one guard tended to fall asleep on duty, and so she took the opportunity to knock out the rest."

"So what do we do about it?"

"I'd say send the guard back."

"Are the security measures in place?" Jack asked.

"Yes, sir. There set in place, and ready to stay until the permanent ones can be installed."

"Good."

"And the guard?"

"Put him on babysitting duty."

Sam blinked at this. "Sir?"

"Since when is that a punishment?" Jackson asked.

"Simple," the colonel said with a smile, though there was a bit of sadness to it, "Kids are kids no matter where they came from. Let him try and run around after a bunch of children and he'll be screaming for a boring guard post or an System Lord, or _something_ to get him free."

"Most assuredly," Teal'c intoned with great understanding.

* * *

Trelak knew that his Lord Ares would not act unless he had information, but he would not care even if his master had no such thing. As a First Prime, it was his duty to merely follow his Lord's commands, and to crush all those who would oppose him. There was little reason to do otherwise, and he would not let anything sway him from his service to his god.

And if that meant checking the readiness of the fleet for a possible attack on Apophis' forces, then that was what he would do.

* * *

Lunch was a meal that Ranma did not like to go without. Of course, he liked to have every meal, no matter what, but he'd rarely had to. His father was never one to skip a meal unless he had to, and so they'd always eaten on time... more or less.

This was different though, as his father was not the one that he was sitting with during the break in training.

Though Hotaru did seem to be a whole lot nicer to look at, and was good company to have. She'd even brought out a picnic basket full of goodies out to him just so that he didn't have to head back to the common area to eat. It was nice and comfortable, with the breeze fluttering the leaves of the trees that he was sitting under, and the sound of water going over rocks coming from the brook nearby.

Then again, as she gave off a happy little sigh and smiled at him, he knew that he would have still done this for her, no matter what.

Happy that she seemed to be happy, he enjoyed the food that she brought.

* * *

With the formation of SG-X, another divergence had occurred within the timestream. SG-1 could go through its missions with only minor alterations, so that wouldn't raise a notice from Sailor Pluto. If she checked in, she would observe the SGC teams stationed primarily on Earth and would hardly register an eyeblink at an extra piece of equipment or two.

Had she known of a _civilian_ Stargate team, formed to bypass chain of command because General George Hammond knew of some unscrupulous people who were going to try and wrest control of the project because it was now likely to show a profit? That might have gotten her to look further and deeper and uncover two presences that she would not have been thrilled with.

However, as for what were listed as "security issues" the world designated "Refuge" was going to be the base site for SG-X. Sure, there could be spies among the international team trying to radio their findings back to Earth. It'd take centuries for those reports to get through space - so that kind of destroyed the threat of that.

While Colonel Maybourne and a few others had problems with the idea of SG-X, it was pointed out that the news of the Stargate would likely become public eventually with all the new tech potentially becoming available. Showing that they were open to very limited and cooperative international alliances might go a long way in defusing those diplomatic problems a bit later on.

As everyone had heard the Stargate go off when one currently missing woman had attained that status, the iris and alarm system was assigned a higher priority in the queue of supplies heading to Refuge.

The temperature and conditions of the site were fairly pleasant, reminding one of the Marines (teaching refugees how to use the farming equipment) of the climate of Idaho. Except for the two moons, occasional rat-thing, some annoying bugs about the size of a child's fist, and some sort of insectivore feathered winged lizard that was becoming fairly popular around camp. Everyone expected winter to bring heavy snowfalls, and how the lizard-bats kept alive during those was still a point of debate.

Unmanned Aerial Drones and a few patrols had mapped out the area, and it was discovered that the mountains nearby formed an arc with the open end pointing to the sea miles away. So far there had been no more cities or signs of habitation, which explained the initial team missing that city. Planets were, after all, fairly big.

As for the inhabitants of the city, little was known. Materials technology was quite advanced. Some form of nanotechnology was likely but left little evidence at this point. There was the possibility of genetic engineering technology - the rat-things and bugs were likely native but the little lizards didn't quite seem to fit. They were, as noted earlier, shorter than the human average - perhaps four to five feet at most in height. Bonaparte had artificial muscles but his main power source was something akin to compressed natural gas which was supplemented by batteries.

Not exactly the cold fusion they'd been hoping for. Still, you had to take what you could get and the battery technology looked rather interesting. Of course, taking apart Bonaparte was out of the question. It might have occurred anyway if he had been placed under military command, but as part of an allied independent group - it was not something likely to occur.

Despite certain plans in motion.

* * *

Sethis was a spy. She was a very good one as such things went, as everyone was convinced that they had her loyalty and all of them were absolutely incorrect. She had no Goa'uld within her, but she was nearly the equal of one when it came to dirty tricks and sheer viciousness even without some ancestral memory.

She served Apophis as a spy amongst his people. She served Ares as a spy within Apophis' camp. The one she served most loyally, however, was herself. She had ambitions, and was not above using any means that came to hand to fulfill those ambitions.

She knew what the "manpower shortages" and "manufacture delays" and "equipment shortfalls" meant. It meant that the Taur'i were busy with a number of projects, and that the Stargate on that one world would not be shielded in time to avoid the first group of Serpent Guards getting through.

However it also meant that most likely those Serpent Guards would be walking into an increased guard force. Within a few days at most there would be a barrier to travel to that so-called "Refuge" via Stargate and the pyramid ships already launching would be almost there.

Making decisions in haste and anger meant that Apophis was making mistakes.

Apophis' would be sorely weakened, his forces depleted on Chulak as he drew from what he had available. The redistribution of forces from other worlds to replace those of Chulak would take weeks to finalize, especially as he didn't want to tip his hand to other System Lords.

Of course, Sethis had already tipped that hand to Ares. Whether Ares gave the information to one of Apophis' rivals or used it himself - it didn't matter to Sethis. She had arrangements in place that would elevate her no matter who it was who emerged triumphant. It was a dangerous game to be sure, but that simply made it enjoyable.

* * *

"Shion Uzuki, Vector Industries," said the woman in the glasses. "Civilian Specialist. I'm still not sure why I'm here though. I read your work on toroidal black holes but I don't see how our fields of endeavor connect."

"Your contract is to provide services as part of a team, 'SG-X', which is to operate out of Refuge," said Professor Tomoe.

"Excuse me?" asked Shion. "I've signed all the nondisclosure agreements and understand that my work here is supposedly so confidential I can't even dream about it. I still don't understand - why me?"

"You've read some of my work?" asked Professor Tomoe.

"The mathematics can't be disputed, but your theories and results seem to defy commonly accepted principals of, well, reality," admitted Shion.

"I had a chance to see some of your work in Artificial Intelligence," said Professor Tomoe. "Self adjusting feedback loops to simulate a human-style intelligence, and therefore the ability to learn and incorporate that knowledge into later decisions."

"It's not that radical a concept," said Shion. "How far down does this elevator go?"

"A little further," said Soichiro Tomoe. "You'll see."

"I take it 'Refuge' is the name of a lab then," guessed Shion. "The power requirement for generating a black hole is beyond anything we currently have access to, so - I still don't know why I'm going. Or why the packet said I should wear hiking clothes."

"Hmmmm. You'll see," said Professor Tomoe. "Part of the reason was that other than your brother Jin, you don't have any current family or attachments - so a long tour of duty shouldn't be too onerous."

"I haven't seen my brother in years," said Shion, still trying to put together the puzzle. "We're finally stopping?"

"It wasn't that far," said Professor Tomoe, "just seems like it sometimes. They wanted to give you a good show when you arrived I think, so they slowed the elevator down."

"A 'good show'?" asked Shion.

"They are technicians who don't get out a lot," said Professor Tomoe. "They like to show off on those rare occasions they can."

"Chevron 4 Encoded," came from an overhead speaker.

Shion followed the Professor out into an area where some odd cart-like device had obviously been put together in a short amount of time and was covered in a heap of boxes and wrapped bundles. There were a lot of people with guns standing around, some sort of observation booth to her left, and a big ring of some odd material to her right. "A 'good show'? Will any of this start making any sense to me soon?"

"Chevron 5 Encoded."

"That's interesting," said Shion, watching the ring-device turn around. "Some sort of locking mechanism? I don't see what it connects to."

"Chevron 6 Encoded."

_WHOOOOOSH! SHUMPF! ripple._

Shion gaped for a moment. "What the?!"

"OKAY! MOVE IT!" said one of the burly types, pushing a button on the cart and starting it rushing towards that wall of rippling whatever.

"That's..." Shion continued to watch as the cart and driver disappeared along with a pair of the armed people. "Toroidal black hole?!"

"Not quite, close though," admitted Tomoe. "Well come on. They can't keep the Stargate open all day."

Shion stood and stared for a moment at the back of the Professor, then over at the "water" before she could get her legs to move.

* * *

It was a tender moment such as she had never experienced before. There was Ranma, eating a sandwich she had made with her own hands.

There was only one little problem.

"You don't have to attack the food, Ranma, it's not going to escape."

Ranma slowed down, considering that. It wasn't as if the old man were hanging near his elbow, trying to steal food at the moment. He didn't think Hotaru was likely to try the same thing, though she didn't have nearly enough food in front of her.

So Ranma ate quickly, but a lot less quickly than was usual for him.

Hotaru sighed, letting her gaze go out among the trees. If it weren't for the occasional batzard plucking bugs out of the air, or the occasional buzz of one of those scarab beetles (quickly determined by a biologist to not pose a threat to humans unless one flew directly into the human - they could move pretty fast and produce a fair impact) or the occasional rat-thing - one could imagine this scene happening back in Japan.

A batzard launched itself from a tree to go sailing overhead.

"I hear some people are talkin' about making pets of them thingies," interjected Ranma unexpectedly.

"What?" asked Hotaru, jolted out of her reverie.

Ranma finished licking his fingers by wiping them on his trousers. "Them 'batzards' or whatever. They're still debating what to call 'em."

That was true, Hotaru realized. Some of the scientists had come up with a name for the creatures, but it was a Latin one that those from Chulak had problems with. The lizards weren't exactly cute, but anything that kept the number of bugs down had a certain appeal in this wilderness setting. Dogs and cats were cuter though.

* * *

Shion walked past one of the guards, noting that at least one of them had a dog with him. She followed the Professor over a hill and through what looked like a modern military encampment with some older style homes being built in some new village arrangement.

"The tents have got to go," said the Professor back to her. "Not only do the Chulak refugees want a permanent residence, it appears that this world has some pretty powerful storms. One of those who's studied that sort of thing thinks that we have a single Australia-sized continent in what is otherwise a water world. Since we can only pass things through the Stargate to get here - we have to take apart and put together again anything larger than that."

"Ah," said Shion, still gawking at the sights.

"Urf," said a black Labrador behind her, a moment before the Stargate started moving again.

* * *

When Shion had agreed to work on a secret government project, she had thought that it would be like all the others that she'd been involved with. There would be a secret lab where security would be tight, information controlled, and their work of the highest and most advanced order. She'd worked hard and long, treating every piece of work with the care and professionalism that she felt that they deserved, and she'd gotten to be in a high position for one of her youth.

However, being informed that there was a way to travel to alien worlds was a bit much to take in, especially when the knowledge was imparted just before she herself had gone in.

So, she didn't need Professor Tomoe to inform her that she should keep out of the way. It wasn't like she was used to it yet, and she seriously doubted that she ever would be. After all, this was a piece of alien technology far in advance of what they were capable of.

However, security guards were the same all over the place, and she could tell that these were part of a bodyguard detail. No one wore suits to places like this, and with earbuds and sunglasses, the people coming out of the Gate were definitely screaming out, appearance wise at least, 'Secret Service'. These were followed by what had to be some sort of secretary, and a man in an Air Force uniform. And bringing up the rear was a man with white hair and a self satisfied smirk on his face.

She could tell that this was not a welcome visit as she saw the Professor tense a bit. "Senator Kinsey. We were not expecting you to... visit us so soon."

"Professor Tomie..."

"Tomoe, senator."

"Sorry. Tomoe. I just thought that it would be best if I checked out this place for myself. Just to find out if it's worth all the capital that you're having the taxpayers dump into it. Not that it looks like much."

"You should have seen it when we first came... sir. We have had to start with nothing, though most of it is a village for the Jaffa."

"That's one thing that I intend to put under consideration," the senator replied.

"What does that mean?"

"I _mean_ that I don't think that it's wise to have all these... these... aliens running around what is a forward _Earth_ base, albeit one that is already compromised with the way it's been set up, including with it's commander."

"I prefer to think of it as a... leadership post," Tomoe said in a quiet voice.

"Then you should see that it's a post that needs a real leader."

"I do, and I hope that you have the same understanding that I do."

"I hope so. Colonel Samuels will be helping me to determine whether or not this bump in the road is even worth it."

"I assure you, it is."

"Then you should hope that I see it the same way. But one thing? Get those guns pointed elsewhere."

"They are merely waiting for any invasion by the Goa'uld. Since we haven't gotten the security devices that the SGC has as of yet, we've had to make due."

"Then point them somewhere else," Kinsey ordered irritably. "I can understand the need for defense, but I'm not some idiot dressed up in silly armor."

'No, you're just in a suit,' Shion thought, and then chided herself for being a bit too nasty in her mind. Then again, even though she'd been rather disturbed by the sight of so many guns pointed in her direction when she'd arrived, she found herself wishing that the guns stayed pointing in Kinsey's direction.

* * *

Apophis leaned forwards in his throne and looked at his new First Prime. "I want you to send out an advanced team as soon as my armies are ready."

"Yes, my Lord," the Jaffa warrior replied.

"Good. I want none of the traitors or the Tau'ri to survive, save as my prisoners."

* * *

Even though he'd made it clear that he was a very important and busy man, Senator Kinsey was finding it to be rather frustrating to get anything done. Instead of the tour that he'd expected, he was getting what was clearly a run around. He wanted to see the security measures, and what sort of research was going on. What he got was a clear view of the fields being planted, the village being built, and how to step to avoid animal dung in the area.

His problem was excacerbated by the fact that the Jaffa didn't like arrogant men who looked down on him, nor did they ignore the fact that the brave warrior O'Neill spoke ill of the people who came from the 'Washington' place that Kinsey came from.

"What is it going to take for you to take this seriously?" Kinsey demanded, halfway to a snarl.

"Whatever do you mean?" Professor Tomoe asked.

"You know _exactly_ what I mean! I am here to evaluate this place's worth as a base for military ops. _Not_ to play Four-H!"

"'Four-H'?"

One could almost see a vein about to burst in the senator's temple. "An agricultural club, but then you wouldn't know that, would you?"

"I do. But I was just trying to bring that idea into the situation here."

"But that's not the point! When are you going to show me something worthwhile?"

"This _is_ 'worthwhile', senator," the Professor replied, "What I've been showing you is what most of this will be. _They_ are creating a village for themselves to live in, and I'm only showing you that part of it."

"How nice..."

"Isn't it though?"

Kinsey did everything a frustrated child would, save for stomping his feet.

* * *

So far half of the Refuge Iris had arrived, the other half apparently having been delivered to an Air Force Base in California. The weapons that had been installed recently to point towards the iris were now pointing skyward, per the Senator's orders. However, there was one weapon pointing towards Senator Kinsey almost from his arrival.

Bonaparte had activated Sneaky-Sneaky Mode. This didn't make him invisible or anything, but it cut engine noise down to near nothing and activated measures to specifically foul various non-optical guidance systems.

"What the heck?" asked Jack O'Neill as he looked up from a table of the alien city artifacts to see an odd procession going through the village.

"THAT is Bonaparte's Sneak Mode, sir," said Carter.

"He's tiptoeing on treads," pointed out Colonel O'Neill.

"He seems to have decided to classify the Senator as an Enemy," observed Daniel. "But why?"

"Never had kids have you?" asked O'Neill. "Kids can pick up on attitudes. If he picked up on how Kinsey treats those around him, and how everyone is responding to him - then I can sure see how he'd come to the conclusion that this was an Enemy."

"Ah," said Daniel, acknowledging the point.

"There's just something kinda odd about over a ton of tank, tiptoeing along behind a Senator's entourage," said Jack, still wanting one of those on HIS team. Not that Teal'c couldn't handle the Point position pretty darn well, it was just that a tank with a big gun on the front was just so perfect for the job of Pointman.

"You're not still pouting about that, are you, Jack?"

"I'm not pouting."

* * *

Senator Kinsey was many things, but he was not stupid. He could see darn well that the temporary dwellings were from the military. The permanent dwellings being erected were of native materials. Had he waited a few weeks for this "fact-finding" mission, no doubt all the non-native materials and equipment would have been out of sight at the very least.

He also knew that the refugees from Chulak were refugees and that part of the reason for them coming to live here was that if they had been placed somewhere in United States territory, they would have been a security risk as soon as they could have talked to someone.

He was also well aware that in recent times, while the military still maintained they were not thieves - some civilians attached to the project recently were not nearly so picky.

"Where's this 'thief' who brought back those items, anyway?" asked the Senator, having not been able to get any details previously.

"Who?" Professor Tomoe blinked from where he was going to point out that for some reason the feathered flying lizards (obviously a relation to archeoptryx) had once again gathered in the area of SG-1. Why they seemed to hang around Colonel O'Neill was anyone's guess and the subject of much humor.

"The boy who brought back all the trinkets," qualified the Senator.

"Oh, Ranma," said the Professor. "He's off on a picnic with my daughter. She's been trying to thank him for rescuing her. Though it warms an old father's heart that there may be incipient romance blooming. Ah hahahahahahahaha!"

People winced nearby as the Professor went off into his "mad scientist laugh" but figured it was like his labcoat and glasses (that he seemed to wear them 24/7) and just that geniuses tended to be at least a little nuts.

"So he's a Japanese citizen too," guessed the Senator.

"Yes, oooh, this is interesting," said the Professor, pointing to a single grass stalk surrounded by stakes and tape to ward off people who might step on it. "One of our botanists has been studying this and thinks that the ancient city dwellers were genetic engineers. This would have been one of their crops."

"I'm sure that's fascinating, to a botanist," said Senator Kinsey. "What with the bugs?"

"These scarab-beetles eat almost anything, as long as it is fairly decayed," said the Professor. "Fascinating digestive system but they appear to be native to this world."

One of the Chulak girls stood nearby, holding a flower.

"Ah, Deefan, isn't it?" The Professor beamed at the six year old. "She's holding one of the nectar-flowers, we think those may have been genetically engineered too."

The girl was obviously intimidated by the large black-suited men, but stepped forward anyway and held the flower up in offering to the foreign dignitary.

Senator Kinsey ignored the girl, moving past her. "I don't care about the plant life here. So far I haven't seen anything to justify this base here. Perhaps some minor laboratory for this city you've uncovered, but nothing this elaborate."

_WOOOOOOOOOP! WOOOOOOOP!_

"Someone else is using the Stargate?" asked the Professor, checking his watch. "That's odd, it's supposed to be another fifteen minutes before the next scheduled connection."

* * *

"Chevron 7 is locked!" said Sergeant Lichtenberg from her position behind the stacked sandbags, her guard-trained Akita-German Shepherd growling softly beside her until she held a hand down in a "hush" gesture.

_FWOOOSH-CHuM! ripple,_ went the Stargate.

* * *

Most of the soldiers were not stupid people. There might be a few that fell through the cracks, but they were mainly a highly trained force that knew that if they screwed up, they'd likely be in looking at the hereafter next. And since most of them were not about to be letting themselves get killed, they were not about to let something as piddling as yet another grandstanding senator get in their way.

So they were ready when the first Serpent Guards stepped through the Gate and aimed their weapons. Staff blasts shot across the area, blowing holes in the closer buildings as the armored warriors stepped on to the planet shooting. Each of them had been trained for all sorts of warfare, and this was the sort of thing that they'd experienced in both exercises and reality.

But this was also not a closed in space like a room in an underground tunnel. It had plenty of space to mount weapons, and that was exactly what had gone on. After all, if one knew that it was entirely possible that an enemy might come, it was only common sense to put in all the defenses as best they could.

That was why, despite the fact that the half of the iris that they did have was waiting for the rest of it to be installed, there was not a loss of hope in the situation.

There was a letting loose of ammunition though, as chain guns, and other rapidly firing weapons were used against the invading forces. Each of them was fully stocked with ammo, and they barked fire along side hand held weapons as the effect of bullets were introduced to the enemy Jaffa. As they came through the Gate, stepping over their fallen comrades, they tried to blow apart the defenses in front of them before the arcing hot lead mowed them down.

That they were actually getting through and had actually managed to send men, sandbags, and gear flying into the air proved that they were not a simple threat though.

* * *

"Do you hear that?" Daniel asked as he pulled his face away from the magnifying glass that he'd been using in his examination of the relics in his lab in the town.

Sam's lips pressed together before she spoke. "I think I have a pretty good idea of what it is..."

"Don't tell me..," Jack groaned.

"Those are staff blasts exchanging fire with Tau'ri weapons," Teal'c observed.

"I told you _not_ to tell me that..."

"Indeed."

"Ah, well. I guess we'll have to lend a hand."

"That would seem to be a wise course of action, O'Neill."

"Yeah. I have my moments. And Daniel? Hide this stuff, would you?" the colonel said with an irritated wave. "I'd prefer not to give those guys anything they could take back to the rattlesnake."

"On it," Jackson replied as he quickly directed his helpers into movement.

"And now it's time for us to earn our pay..."

* * *

There were leaders who kept their cool under fire. They might not be military trained, but they were capable of great acts of personal strength and guidance. These were the sorts of folks who if a group of people were lost in the mountains, that would be who they'd want leading them. In a crisis, one could could on them.

Senator Kinsey was not one of those people. Instead, he hid behind the knocked over table that was providing him and Colonel Samuels cover as he glared at the Professor. "Do you consider _this_ to be how a site should be secure?!"

"No, but the equipment that we asked to secure it has not arrived. Something about 'proper channels'," Tomoe replied. "However, the weapons that you wanted pointed away from you are now pointed at our company. And are doing pretty well, all things considering."

"I demand that you do something about this!"

"What can I do? As you pointed out, I'm not military. To get involved when I don't have the proper training would be the sort of move only a fool would make."

"Then find someplace safe for me!"

"Sorry. You're not my number one priority," the professor said evenly.

"WHAT?!"

"I have an entire base to worry about, with some of the most advanced materials we've found here. "I can't let you get taken by them, but if I try to get you to 'safety', they'll have a clear shot at you. _And_ it would take time away from making sure that they can't get enough troops here to hunt you down. I'm sure that you would not like to play 'fox' to their 'hounds', or am I wrong."

"You're right about that," Kinsey admitted in a low growl... just as a chair splintered as a blast hit it. "I'd just like to know who's bright idea was it to keep a so called 'forward base' so lightly defended!"

"I was told that it was due to a 'review of the cost effectiveness and worth of the base'. They wouldn't give us too much until our budget was authorised by a member of the Appropriations Committee..."

"Grr..."

* * *

When the Serpent Guards had departed for their mission, they had expected only Tau'ri fighters. They thought that those would be the ones who did the fighting, and had the ability to combat the forces sent out.

However, this was a new situation. Those who had merely once been slaves were now freed to live their lives the way that they wanted to. In this place, they had homes that they had created themselves, lands to grow crops and the freedom to live without concern that the wrong thoughts could get them tortured, at the very least.

As a result, it was not surprising that some of the refugees, mainly those with training or willingness, came forth with staff weapons and added their own shots at the invaders. That increased the defenses well, and even if they were mostly not turned warriors, they were quite certainly ready to fight.

This was their home now, and they were certainly not about to give it up if they had any breath left in their bodies.

That was why it became much harder for the attacking force.


	5. Chapter 5: fistful of snakes

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_SciDISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Also note that some text in the original came in different colors, but doesn't support that function as far as i can tell.

Chapter 5: A fistful of snakes

* * *

Colonel Samuels was the first to see it and actually comment on it. Which was odd because the Secret Service had noted the tank tiptoeing behind them some time ago but each had figured they were simply overworked. "What the hell is that?"

_VROOOOOOM!_ went a one man tank, zipping to put itself between the Professor and the Bad Men who were shooting.

#Professor, I'll cover you. Let's get you into shelter.#

"I didn't authorize some toy tank," said the Senator, forgetting for a moment that said tank was providing something bulletproof between him and the fight.

_KRANG!_

"Are you okay, Bonaparte?" The Professor asked.

#Minor damage to my hull, Professor. At this distance the staff weapons have a 35% reduction in penetrative ability.#

"Good, Bonaparte. Let's get going," said the Professor, beginning his retreat in the shadow of the tank. "And no, Senator. You did not authorize Bonaparte. Bonaparte is one of our new allies."

"It's a talking tank?" said Colonel Samuels as he realized that the tank was referring to its own damage. "You found a talking tank?!"

"He's self aware yes, a machine intelligence," said the Professor.

_KRANG!_

#HEY! I just got that painted! That stung!#

"Nobody saw fit to put this in any report?" asked the Senator, beginning to turn red again.

The Professor hmphed. "He's listed under the non-Earth personnel section on page 47. You did read that, right?"

"Who's THAT?" said Colonel Samuels, seeing something else noteworthy going on.

* * *

Ranma Saotome's first priority was making sure Hotaru was safe. Unfortunately she was pretty insistent that they locate her father and make sure that he was okay.

Once they saw Bonaparte escorting him and some guys in suits back, that fear had been assuaged. However they were not out of problems as Hotaru had made many friends among the military and the Jaffa and her odd talent for healing people had been "just our little secret" with a large number of individuals.

One Serpent Guard had gotten away from the Gate and was now moving through the village, ready to shoot anything that moved. Ranma saw, assessed the threat, and responded.

He faded back into view above and behind the Serpent Guard, fist lashing out to a particular spot along the spine.

_KRUMPH!_

* * *

Senator Kinsey gaped and his Secret Service people exchanged nervous looks. It was their job to protect people from threats, and so someone capable of bypassing their usual tactics made them a little uncertain until they worked out new tactics and precautions.

"Was that some other new technology you haven't told us about?" guessed Colonel Samuels.

"Oh no, Ranma's just a ninja," said the Professor, using 'ninja' just as a catch-all term that he figured the Americans would be familiar with. "I mentioned he was my daughter's bodyguard, didn't I?"

"Uh, yeah, I think so," said Colonel Samuels.

"Another entry on page 47?" asked the Senator, glaring at the Professor.

If the Professor noticed, he didn't show it. "No, Ranma's on page 23 with my daughter. 'Earth-native-personnel semi-permanently assigned to Refuge' is the header. Right after my own name and that of his father, actually."

"What are they doing?" asked one of the Secret Service men as children swarmed out and began looting the body of the fallen Serpent Guard.

"Oh, they worship my daughter as some kind of goddess of destruction. Embarasses the heck out of her," confessed the Professor. "They're gathering offerings for her. We'll probably farm these out to Colonel Samuels base later for his investigation, we just have to go through procedures first."

Colonel Samuels grinned briefly. Actually he wasn't that upset with SGC at the time, despite hearing that most of SG-1 thought of him as a 'strutting martinet with delusions of adequacy'. Or 'the sort of self-important weasel that gives the rest of the military a bad name.' Enough gadgets and odd finds were heading towards Broom Lake that his own scientists and engineers were often working themselves to an enthusiastic exhaustion just trying to do enough initial investigation to properly catalogue them. He wanted to get into the tank but allowed that might be difficult without having clearer authority.

* * *

Shion Uzuki was not, in her own estimation, a frontline fighter. Oh sure, she was capable enough if it came down to that. Her brother Jin, for all his problems, had taught her that much. When the violence had begun, she'd ducked for cover.

Nor had she been alone, a number of the Chulak natives were with her, watching the battle unfold.

Now the reason for the large guns surrounding the Stargate were painfully apparent. There was an enemy, and they wore snake-headed helmets, and they were dying so quickly that they began blocking the Stargate ramp. They were heavily armored, but the weapons the Earth forces had apparently disassembled on Earth to reassemble here were apparently chosen on the basis of being able to get through that armor.

"Who are these guys anyway?" asked Shion.

"They are the Serpent Guards of Apophis," said one of the Chulak people nearby. "Those are staff weapons that they wield."

A little girl pointed. "That is an XM109, objective sniper weapon, semiautomatic using a twenty five by fifty nine mirrormeter shell."

Shion blinked and looked out at where the girl was pointing. "I think you mean 'millimeter.' How do you know that?"

"Sergeant Watt-Evans told me," said the little girl. "He said he load teflon rounds except the re-ko-zit-shun got denied in some committee. Damn bean counters."

Shion looked at the one weapons emplacement clearly visible at this angle and wondered how necessary such a thing would be. It seemed that things were progressing fairly well without special ammunition.

Finally the noise died down, the Stargate was quiescent, and the assault seemed to have ended.

* * *

Bonaparte slung dirt to the side as he moved around the hill that kept the village just out of sight of the Stargate. His turret moved to keep the barrel pointing at the same target as he sped along.

_PUM! PUM! PUM! PUM!_

The guy standing in front of the Stargate was briefly hidden behind a yellow barrier as the shots slammed into him. He smirked arrogantly back at the odd gadget and raised his staff weapon slowly.

_BRRRRRRRRRRRMP!_

Again the Jaffa was obscured by the yellow forcefield effect.

Bonaparte, frustrated, decided to play guard to the women and children again.

* * *

There had been among the lizard-birds several which were were not lizard-birds at all, but copies that served as eyes and ears for the Bolo watching from its hangar.

The huge tank had noted the way the persons with the serpentine helmets had acted and had now classified these as an Enemy. Not a particularly honorable one either - that one stopped in the village had been going after noncombatants. Another one had gone after children and had set the hut they were hiding in on fire.

Within his mechanical heart, the Bolo knew rage.

The new data from Bonaparte's unconscious transmittals had given new factors to be added. Some sort of force field which responded to velocity of the attack by increasing the apparent hardness of the field.

The Bolo was still not sure that these 'humans' were allies or would be considered allies of the creators. Especially as that one seemed to be in charge, but wore arrogance like a cheap suit.

Ah, now this was an interesting development. And the creatures bore a vague resemblence to the creators despite being clearly some form of domesticated animal, so their contribution to this colony had been something the BOLO had pondered over. Apparently the beasts had a function within their society.

* * *

Dogs had been with humans for thousands of years. Their senses were different from a human's, placing a greater emphasis on scent and being able to differentiate between a hundred thousand scents.

Since a canine could smell cancerous cells in a patient, it wasn't too difficult to detect an alien parasite in a human host.

Gus knew a number of things but was interpreting them in a canine manner, not a human one. That didn't mean that Gus was completely out of the loop however.

These were outside the pack, attackers from another pack attacking HIS pack. In simplest terms, enemies.

Alpha of this foreign pack had some smell to him which was of Bad Thing.

Gus didn't know a thing about the energy shield surrounding the Goa'uld. Gus didn't know that the shield's protection was in direct proportion to the speed of the projectile.

Gus knew several things however. Boomsticks had stopped. Enemy in position. Alpha was whistling. Gus knew it was time to act.

* * *

"What's that dog doing?" asked Jack O'Neill, watching as a guard dog crept up behind the Jaffa and the Stargate.

_lunge! CHOMP!_

"YEEARGHHH!"

"Biting his leg, sir," Carter informed her immediate commanding officer.

"I know that," said Jack O'Neill.

"The thrashing back and forth is for the jaws to further lacerate the wound as well as keeping prey off balance," added Daniel as he dived down and recovered his weapon.

Teal'c saw the creature let go of the Jaffa's leg and dance out of the way of the swing. Then duck in and grab the staff weapon about halfway up and begin tugging on it. "I believe that the beast is attempting its best at giving us a clear shot."

"The force field seems to deflect bullets and energy blasts," said O'Neill, pulling a knife and throwing it.

"ARRRGHHHH!"

"Nice shot, sir," commented Carter.

"I was aiming for his head," complained O'Neill.

"At that distance, you should take what you can get," said Samantha Carter.

"FETCH!" commanded a different voice.

The dog twisted and began running, dragging a staff weapon behind him but the wolf hybrid managed a respectable pace anyway.

Eyes flashed, deep growly voice said a few things that were extremely uncomplimentary about Taur'i animals, Taur'i weapons, and Taur'i in general.

"Whoa, someone's gotta potty mouth," said Jack.

* * *

"Lord Apophis, will this not leave Chulak underdefended?" questioned one of the Jaffa.

"We will crush these heretics and the shol'va," said Apophis, "before any learn of the problem."

"As my lord wills," said the Jaffa, aware of his no-win scenario. Question his god and his neck was on the line. However if he failed to point this out, it might end up with him suffering for it later as well.

So he merely followed his god to the motherships launching for the refugee world and hoped he somehow came out of this alive.

* * *

Senator Kinsey had wanted to see what was going on. He was also wondering about negotiating with these Goa'uld. It might be possible to work out a treaty and gain access to their technology without the expense of running the full Stargate program and putting up with their nonsense.

Seeing the forcefield protecting the Goa'uld from even 50-mike automatic weapon fire had been fairly impressive. Something else was penetrating the Senator's huff though. As noted he wasn't stupid, he might have had all the morality of a rabid weasel and be as prime an example of a posturing politician as one could find in Washington, but he was not stupid. He simply chose what he wanted to perceive, how he would interpret it, and otherwise act more obstinate all the while he sought to exploit whatever fell within his grasp for his political career.

The stop in shooting, the dog attack, the staff weapon stolen, the firing re-commencing. All spoke of a coordinated plan. The shield had obviously been a surprise, but he'd heard the walkie talkies going into rapid code-word speech and had figured out that this plan had been what had been discussed as it went down.

Which meant that while this scenario had not been planned, the groups involved had been working together and were using their resources in the sort of smooth coordination that came from long practice and competent individuals working as a team.

So he made a few disparaging remarks about the ineffectual nature of the defenses, but was also keeping an eye on various things around the encampment. It was a pity that anti-aircraft gun hadn't been finished, but taking something apart to fit through the Stargate and reassembling it on this side likely took a fair amount of time.

The first Jaffa now was bleeding freely from two wounds, having a knife in one shoulder and a leg that missing a chunk where armor hadn't covered it. When he was joined by two others, similarly shielded, Kinsey thought that perhaps a retreat was in order.

Then he saw Tomoe's daughter's bodyguard reappear and decided to stay put after all. It was obvious why they would think the girl a goddess of destruction if she had a child who could do THAT as a bodyguard.

Ninja eh? Maybe he ought to get one on his own payroll. Could be handy in Washington.

* * *

Genma Saotome had his bad points. They did not include letting children get shot up by staff wielding goons.

When he'd gotten the children to shelter, it had been someplace with a lot of food and water, as well as thick walls. The kitchen and dining halls had these because it _was_ designed as a shelter and the thick walls could serve as insulation. They had only vague ideas how hot the summers got, how cold the winters got, or how big some nasty predatious creature might be somewhere out there. They did know that when the storm season hit, it'd be a doozy - all of the trees and plants had extensive root systems and the edges of the forest had old signs of damage that was currently attributed to storms. The botanist McCaffrey had theorized that the seasonal storms here reached hurricane levels but were severely diminished by the mountain ranges sheltering their area and the city.

Still, it had been indication enough that the area for food storage would have to be reinforced several times. It was one of the safe places to retreat to in case of major problems. Genma thought this qualified.

That he could nervously munch on rice crackers as he watched for signs of the invaders getting this far was beside the point.

Besides, he had his newest students with him. Rin'cyc, Syral (she might be a girl but she was definitely a tomboy and athletically inclined), Tyv'ac (who seemed enthusiastic but hopeless), J'had, R'kon, G'kar - all wanted to be warriors in service of the goddess and "kick serious Goa'uld bootie."

Well, they had motivation. They had enthusiasm. Now if they'd only had the talent.

* * *

Ranma had listened and heard and understood. These guys used some sort of shield that reacted with the speed of the attack. The faster you attacked, the stronger the shield. There had been one gun that Ranma had seen and thought kind of impressive. It was a 30mm Vulcan with 'depleted uranium' bullets, coming from something called a 'Warthog' and them big bullets had been pretty heavy. When that 'stalling engine' hum sounded, those shields had gone completely opaque and it looked like the targets had been pushed back by the impacts.

Pity they didn't have more ammo. Oh well.

He nudged Sergeant Haldeman and borrowed the soldier's communicator. "This Ranma. Stop shoot. I try something."

With that he cloaked himself in the Umisenken, then crossed the distance between the hardpoint and the three figures on the platform who were still acting as if they were invincible. Pfeh. Idiots relying on a single special technique to protect them. Didn't they know that for every move, there was a counter-move?

Speed techniques or projectiles would be difficult to utilize. The Stargate thingie shimmering behind them still gave Ranma an idea though.

Grab. Throw.

A very surprised Serpent Guard realized that his buddy had just been bodily picked up and hurled back into the Stargate. Naturally he brought his staff weapon around.

Too slow. Too late. Ranma ducked under and past the guy, jamming a small object he'd stolen earlier into the guy's buckles. Then Ranma proceeded with all due speed back towards the hardpoint.

The Serpent Guard was just managing to aim his weapon again when he noticed the resemblence between the object in his harness and the sort of grenade he was familiar with.

_BOOM!_

The Stargate went quiescent again and there was silence except for the collapse of the remaining Guard, likely from the number of wounds he'd gotten recently that his symbiote couldn't quite keep up with.

"Well, that went well, didn't it?" asked Jack O'Neill from his position away from the fight.

* * *

"Now _this_ is a party," O'Neill said a few hours later. "None of that standing around and trying to think up something that sounds stupid."

Carter nodded at her commanding officer. "Yes, sir. It is something to enjoy."

"Exactly. Nothing like those stupid parties in Washington. You ever been to one of those?"

"A few..."

He snapped his fingers as he remembered something. "Oh, yeah. Forgot. Those were your old stomping grounds."

"They were."

"Good thing you got out of them. Places like that makes a guy's brain turn to jello."

"Something like that," she replied, and had to stifle a giggle as she saw him glance at Kinsey as he spoke. But she stayed away from that and turned her attention to the celebrations going on all around them.

Bonfires burned at multiple places around the area, with the flames setting the area aglow with their light. Someone had been bright enough to figure out that barbecue would be a good idea, and all sorts of foods were now out and filling the air with scents of juicy meats. Dotted around the village were musicians from Chulak and Earth, with a mixture of sounds that harmonized into a celebratory song that was something that was uniquely of this place. Dancers were bounding around the area, careless of how foolish they might look.

All in all, it was a time of great joy, and celebrating the moment, even if they had no idea of what would come next. Seeing a soldier try to show a Jaffa boy how to eat a hot dog, and another holding an audience around him by playing his guitar, made her realise that in this place they were seeing what the Stargate program could really do. And she was pleased that she got to be a part of it.

"Punch?" Jack asked her, holding out a cup.

Smiling back at him, she took the offered drink. "Don't mind if I do, sir."

* * *

Being a Jaffa in the service of Lord Apophis was a great honor. To be able to directly serve one's god was something that few beings could be allowed to do. He'd given them gifts beyond measure, and it was for that bounty that they gladly gave their lives. His displeasure was not something that they wanted to invoke, so they did what they he bid of them, and did so with the full confidence that he would know how to act.

So none of them were about to tell him that the food that they got on these long trips to battle was not always the most appealing.

None of them wished to have their symbiotes crushed, and a long suffering death come to them just because they asked for something that had a little variety.

* * *

If there was something that Ranma liked as much as fighting, it was eating. His father had raised him with a great appreciation for food, and he was never one to forgo the chance to get something to snack on. That had led him to have tried many different dishes, and he was always ready to try something else.

And when it came to times like this, what with a victory celebration and an 'iris raising', as one wit had put it, he was finding that everyone agreed that imbibing was a good choice.

He agreed, as he always enjoyed a good party, and he thought that one was called for. They had won, and even if the enemy came back, it was a good time to have fun when one could manage it. Besides, the sight of Hotaru smiling from ear to ear as she played with some Jaffa children was more than enough reason for him to be happy at the moment.

However, partying was a calorie burning exercise, at least for him, and he was still hungry from the fight. Since no one was about to stop him, he was going to eat the combination of Earth and Chulak foods that had been put out for all to enjoy. But when he did so, he stopped in surprise.

"Didn't expect see you here," he said to the man at one of the food tables.

Teal'c raised a brow. "I find that the assortment of foods appealing. You do not have a problem with that?"

"Course not. Is my idea. You eat that?"

"Indeed. Did you wish to have one?"

"Yeah. But take from table. Of ones you left. Must like donuts."

"Is there a problem with that?" the former First Prime asked.

The pigtailed boy shook his head, and picked up one of his own. "Nope. Is something I agree with."

"Very good."

"Think so too."

* * *

Even though many of those who knew him thought that he was a 'party pooper', Kinsey knew the benefits of a good 'shindig'. It was part of his strategy in getting to where he was at the moment. Dinner parties like the ones he'd attended as functions of his position were times where people met, mingled, and networked. But the more open and rowdy of the parties were ones that were thrown for common people, though many didn't realise just why they happened. After all, that was part of the point. If someone threw a good enough of a 'celebration', then a union's members would feel more connected to that person. Local festival parties and parades were good for acting as a politician for the people, and they all let one get a message across.

This one might have been a spur of the moment event, but the senator could see the benefits of it. Once the enemies were stopped, and a quick call back to the SGC got the second half of the iris there, they all felt a bit safer. It also allowed him the chance to talk without being guided, and he did like a good party, no matter what form it took.

And he was _damned_ happy that no one was trying to put on a show for him any more. That in and of itself allowed him to relax a whole lot more than anything else.

Letting himself smile just a little bit, he watched the proceedings.

* * *

PJ2-445:  
"You're with the Senator, aren't you?" asked one of the soldiers, holding out a paper plate of food.

The guy in the dark suit shrugged and took the proferred offering. "Bennet Kohl. Secret Service."

"'Kohl'? Dutch?"

The Secret Service agent nodded as he scooped up some beans with the little plastic fork. "Third generation. You?"

"Jaeger," said the soldier. "German-Irish."

"Now that probably makes for an interesting homelife," said Kohl. "Don't tell me all these people are going to try to eat this kind of food on a regular basis?"

"Nah, we've got some supplies here, but this is going to be an agricultural community come spring. Weather people think this is late summer or early fall here, so there's a lot of stuff they can't plant just yet." The soldier gestures. "So how's the job?"

"It's more of a calling than a job," said Kohl. "Benefits stink. Retirement plan isn't that good. Mostly just stand around and look imposing. You?"

"Pay's standard E-4 and there's always a chance we'll open a Stargate into some mess we can't fix, but there are benefits," said Jaeger. "I mean look at that. Two moons. What other job can you get that you can see things like that? I'm just afraid I'll say something wrong or screw up some paperwork and end up transferred to a commissary in the Aleutians or something. Some of us get a boring NORMAL post after this - it'd damn near kill us."

"Hmmm," hmmmed Kohl, somewhere between an agreement and not.

"Well, take it easy," said Jaeger. "At least as easy as you can with your job."

"Hey, one question," said Kohl before the other could leave. "Is it worth it?"

"From just what I've seen in the past week - yeah," said Jaeger. "It's worth it."

* * *

Samantha leaned close to her superior officer. "Sir, Specialist McCaffrey found something."

Jack O'Neill glanced at the Senator then quietly got up and followed Carter back. "What do you mean 'something'? That's the botanist and not the tank specialist right?"

"Yes sir," said Samantha, no longer hiding that she was excited about something.

"A botanist found something exciting?" Jack asked the night. "Somehow that doesn't sound right."

"It's potentially very big sir," said Carter. "You know how we thought that the city-dwellers were biomechanics?"

"Yeah, you said something about that, those 'artificial muscles' and such," agreed Jack.

"There it is!" said Carter, throwing open the tent flap and pointing.

"There what is?" asked Jack, just seeing a table full of odd pieces collected from the site.

"We've found hundreds of these," said the botanist. "We've been assuming that it was part of something else, but look what happens when I fit these two pieces together."

"It forms an 'X' shape, sorta," said Jack, still not seeing it. "Except that there's those spiky things along one edge."

"They're combs," said McCaffrey. "Whoever the inhabitants were, they had hair."

Jack blinked and turned a blank gaze towards both scientists. "This is important how?"

"If you have a small amount of body hair, a little comb will do," said McCaffrey. "Instead this looks more like something you'd see a veterinarian use. To have this many of them, there must have been a lot of body hair involved."

"Or they had pets," said Jack. He picked up a few mirror-like pieces of some other material and started fumbling them around. "Even if we know what they looked like, we still don't know what killed them, how it killed them, or if it or they or whatever is still around somewhere. All we know for sure is that they're dead."

* * *

Senator Kinsey watched the dog. The dog watched back.

Finally with a sigh, he lifted one end of his hot dog and tossed it into the air. It never hit the ground as a pair of jaws deftly intercepted it. Well, as deftly as that breed ever accomplished anything.

"Why is there a Basset Hound here anyway?" asked the Senator. It wasn't like this was a credible watch dog or something.

"Pet," said a grubby looking kid nearby. "Mine is. Got from soldier. Is good dog."

Making sure nobody was looking in his direction save the dog and the native child, the Senator's mask slipped a little. Just a tiny bit. "I'm sure he is. So he's your dog, eh?"

The Chulak child nodded. "Yes. I give him name of great warrior of Tauri people. I listen stories and I know legends of Tauri of Oosah."

The Senator thought about that for a moment. "I think you mean 'USA'. What's the name of this great warrior?"

The Chulak child drew himself up to his full height (which wasn't much) and dignity (ditto) and said the name he'd learned from the stories on the picture-box he'd seen back on the Tauri world. "His name 'Bondjamesbond' but I call him 'Bond' for short."

Several people nearby stared in disbelief at the sight of Senator Kinsey laughing?!

Bennet Kohl looked at his nearly empty cup and over at where the Senator's cup was. "I'll have whatever he's having."

* * *

Hotaru put down her cup and looked across the bonfire at where Ranma had taken a stick and was scratching out something in the dirt. Screwing up her courage, she started towards him. This was the perfect opportunity for moonwatching, and they could sit back, and she could say she was cold and he'd put his arm around her...

"RANMA! Come with me! I must begin teaching you a new technique to better deal with these invaders!"

"Right away Pop!" agreed Ranma, leaping up.

Hotaru hung her head and went back to where she'd put her cup down. There always seemed to be an interruption.

* * *

If there was one thing that a military force could create easier than new bullets, it was paperwork. Just filling out documents took up a lot of an officer's time, and the fact of the matter was that beauacracy could be worse at times than the enemy. Like in many government agencies, there was no desire to accidentally skip any possible feasible occurrence in documentation. There were request forms, post op reports, and requests for leave that all had to be handled by the commander of the unit.

That was something that General Hammond was not enamored of, but he understood the necessity of it. There had to be a record somewhere of military action, even if most people would never see it. Doing paperwork might be dull or aggravating at times, but a good officer did not shirk duties merely because he disliked the act. And for most of them, he could handle taking care of them.

But he still couldn't see how filling out a form would make it any easier when registering a subordinate's death.

Still, he was spending time in his office, catching up on the files that the success of the Stargate Program had generated, and hoped to heaven that he'd be able to get home in time to at least speak with his granddaughters. They were sweet kids, and he was happy that he'd been blessed to have them around them. So, much like other loving relatives, he'd rather be with them than some mass produced forms.

However, that was going to have to wait a while, or so he figured as he looked up at the knock that Sergeant Harriman had just done on his open door. "Come in."

"Sorry to bother you Sir," the other man said, and tried to smile apologetically. "But I thought that you should see this."

"See what?"

"Something taken from one of those English tabloids, sir."

"Walter, I don't have time for celebrity exposes, or some horoscope..," the General warned.

"That's not it sir. There's a picture that appeared in one of them that has a lot to do with what's going on."

"Well? Let me see then."

"Yes, sir. And when you do, I think that you'll understand."

Hammond took the photo from the tech's hand and immediately saw what was so major about it. There was a girl leaping from what looked like one rooftop to another. From what he could tell, she was blonde, and slim, but other than that the image was clearly victim to someone who had only a limited time to take an action shot. It was a bit blurry, but the main detail was clear.

This girl had on an outfit that very clearly resembled that of the 'Reaper' picture. She might have been wearing heels, but the short skirt, white top and bow on the front was obviously similar to the 'uniform' that Hotaru had been reported wearing. That made it very important to deal with it immediately.

"Listen to me very carefully. I want a team put together to go to the area where this was taken to investigate, monitor, and observe only," Hammond instructed, "I'll clear it with the State Department and the British."

"You don't want to confront her?"

"No. We don't know what she's like, or how she'd react. With Hotaru, we got lucky. In this case, we might not, so we'll need to find out about her before we do anything else."

"Yes, sir. But..."

"What?"

"Won't the British be concerned about us sending in a team?"

"We'll just make up a cover story... if we do tell them. Either way, you did a good job in bringing this to me."

"Thank you, sir."

"Do they give a name to her?"

"'Sailor V'," Harriman replied.

* * *

The morning after the party was fairly normal for events on PJ2-445. Most of the drinks involved had not been alcoholic in nature, many people understanding that even with the iris in place that there were potential dangers involved.

SG-1 met early in the morning, their own daily plans indicating that they would depart PJ2-445/Refuge in order to return to Earth and eventually get back into exploring things from Earth's Stargate.

"So this ancient society here had genetic engineering?" asked Colonel O'Neill, thinking about the previous night. His hands idly worked over some odd pieces of ceramic metal substance that had similar coloration.

"Yes sir," said Carter absently turning the silver cube around in her hands. "Current speculation is that they were nanotechnologists. Their materials technology and the genetic engineering would have both been outgrowths of that science. That 'wheat' plant for example. It looks to have been designed to survive extremes of temperature, has a very pervasive root system, and may have some pretty strong defenses against disease and insect predation."

"Bug and rot proof, huh?" Jack nodded. "I can see where that might have some appeal."

"Those nectar-flowers on the other hand appear to have been developed for purely aesthetic reasons," said Carter. "I disagree with Professor Tomoe on the scarab-beetles though. Their ability to digest almost anything looks more like some form of engineered ability than a natural one."

"I don't know," said Jack O'Neill, putting a third piece onto the other two where they clicked together. "Hey, this is a... doorknob?"

"Interesting, they may have had human style hands," said Carter. "See the ridges - like a human finger grip."

"As for the number of combs recovered, they must have had some cultural significance regarding hair," said Daniel. "Maybe the longer the hair the higher the status in the society."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow as he noted the glances in his direction.

* * *

"Show me one thing useful this program has come up with!" Senator McKinsey griped in his usual manner, trying to regain his groove and finding it a little difficult. One reason to distance himself from these natives had been that as long as he hadn't seen them as more than numbers - it was easier to discount their problems.

Professor Tomoe sensed something different about the Senator, so he shrugged and pushed the plate of scrambled eggs aside to put something in the center of the table. Then he reached over and toggled the control on the Serpent Guard headpiece. _Vrrrrp_

The Senator scowled at the device. "And what does this prove?"

"First," said Professor Tomoe, "this is a form of memory metal. Switch it on and it turns rigid and expands to a preset form - that of the full helmet. This metal is light and very tough, most gunfire from typical assault weapons won't penetrate it until you concentrate fire upon an area. Unlike naquadah, this is an alloy we can potentially make on Earth. We're still working on it, but when we've got the process down you'll be able to flip a switch and add armor to a vehicle that looks fairly normal until you turn it on."

The Senator didn't need to look at his Secret Service agents or at Maybourne to sense their interest. "Still-"

Professor Tomoe held up a hand. "Second. The helmet has some pretty good nightvision and display modes, but the System Lords don't have HUDs. One of the improvements we're looking to make when we've figured out the optics."

"I see," said the Senator, sensing he was losing this battle and finding that he was surprisingly less concerned about that. He told himself it was just that he was getting better intel now and seeing potential uses. It wasn't like he was getting soft. Nope. He was a cranky old curmudgeon and he wasn't going to change that.

"Bonaparte - the talking tank?" prompted Professor Tomoe. "Made a deal as one sentient to another with General Hammond. In order to assist us in exploring worlds, he's given us a process by which we can make artificial muscles. With some additional work we can combine the two into something potentially -"

"Power Armor?!" interrupted Maybourne, racing ahead into the idea and showing a particular glint to his eyes.

"Yes, that is one possibility," acknowledged Professor Tomoe, a little miffed that someone made the connection that quickly.

"When I was a kid I'd read 'Starship Troopers'," confessed the Colonel, looking off in the distance with that odd gleam still in his eye and a wistful air to him. "Personal body armor for a soldier that provides some protection from not only small arms fire but Chemical and Biological Weapons... When can I see the specs on this?!"

"We're still checking into it," said Professor Tomoe. "We've determined that Bonaparte is giving off regularly timed high density transmission bursts in an unused frequency. We think he may be backing his data up onto some other system and that he himself isn't aware of it. General Hammond has given a tentative OK to the plan of having Bonaparte join 'SG-X' but wants to find out more about where those transmissions go first."

Colonel Maybourne nodded. "Maybe a 'sleeper' agent."

Professor Tomoe raised an eyebrow. He hadn't thought the Colonel that intelligent, but then again this was probably familiar ground to someone who worked in black box projects.

"What about that Jaffa that collapsed? The one that had the shield?" asked the Colonel.

"That? A minor Goa'uld in the service of Apothis, used in the manner of an elite soldier." The Professor shrugged. "He's in custody and undergoing medical treatment. We'll see what develops."

* * *

According to evidence discovered in Ethiopia, modern style humans were at least 200,000 years old. Among the first domesticated animals had been wolves. In time these wolves had become dogs, evolving into a niche within human cultures.

In that time, varieties had been bred. Each had its own quirks, problems, and prevailing attitude.

When strictly military teams had been sortied to Stargate sites, there had been no canine presence despite the long association of humanity and canines. With the advent of a permanent and largely civilian population on another world, it was inevitable that various animals would be imported as well.

Since the base was to be permanent and have the soldiers stationed there for long periods, those without close family were ideal. Pets on the other hand, had plenty of area to roam around in - and so were acceptable.

Those from Chulak were fascinated with Lieutenant Retief's parrot. As well as with Sergeant Lichtenberg's Akita-German Shepherd mix. Somewhat deserving of respect was Saberhagen's Wolf hybrid "Gus" and Corporal DeCamp's Doberman, both for size and how well trained they were.

Corporal LeGuin was teaching falconry to the children using her sparrowhawk, and the rat-thing population began declining rapidly.

Those from Chulak found the idea fascinating and some of the children, such as D'ger and his Basset Hound Bondjamesbond, had discovered the benefits of fur therapy. Petting and scratching such animals had a relaxing effect. Not that having the animals around was entirely free of problems, but they were rapidly becoming a facet of life on Refuge that helped to differentiate between the lives on Chulak from the lives of Refuge.

Shion found herself telling a rapt audience of adults and children the story of Haichiko. As with the Japanese, the story of a dog's loyalty to its master struck a chord with these folk.

* * *

"We will arrive at the shol'va world in three days," said one of the Jaffa to his lord.

"Make all the weapons ready," commanded Apophis. "None shall live save those we choose to make examples of."

"As you command, mighty Apophis," agreed the Jaffa.

* * *

Captain Weber looked over at the guy that the Pentagon had sent to oversee the mission and raised a brow. "Well sir, this is different that my normal routine."

"I would think that would be true," Major Paul Davis replied as the two of them walked along the street.

"It's not every day that I get ordered to chase after a girl."

"Yes, but if our assumptions are correct, then this 'girl' may be more than the normal ones."

"Which is why we are here," the captain replied, nodding at the view of the London park they were travelling through.

"Exactly. I hope that you don't have a problem with that."

"Me? Of course not. We're here in the middle of London looking for one person, and not trudging through some jungle with snipers after us."

"Are you always this... cheerful?"

"Not always. But sir? Can't we do this more efficiently? This is like looking for a needle in a haystack."

Davis shook his head. "Unfortunately, we can't just do a systematic search. That would get the British questioning our cover story. We need them happy and unconcerned. Besides, this is a girl who only shows up periodically. We can only pinpoint where she's been, and hope that whatever brought her to the area will bring her back. But there are patterns..."

"And when you have patterns, you can at least narrow down your options. That's why you're having us search out points where there have been multiple appearances."

"We're looking for anything that would make a girl of the right age want to be there."

"Understood," Weber replied, "but this is going to be rather difficult."

"How so?"

"I don't understand my nieces' tastes, and now you're asking me to figure out those of another teenager?"

"I know, but it's orders. We'll just have to hope that we get lucky."

* * *

The Bolo heard the stories being told to the kids, and considered the one that spoke of the pet that had dutifully waited each day for his master's return from work, even after the man's death. It had done so without fail and had been so loyal that nothing would stop it's self appointed duty. This was not the mindless devotion to a higher up, but was of a willingness to stand by someone no matter what. And those around it had supported the animal in its endeavor, and had even erected a statue to it.

In having that be a story to relate to children, it told the Bolo two important things. First, it said that the morals of the story were considered necessary to pass along. But the other reason was of more substance. It told the ancient war machine that these humans understood something about loyalty and honor, and were not letting such ideals be washed away by expedience.

Such information raised the estimation of the race as a whole lot.

* * *

Minako ran as quickly as she could while staying breathing, as she found herself in what amounted to yet another dash to overcome lateness. She hadn't planned on doing this _again_ but she was finding it rather distressingly familiar. If she wasn't being kept after class by a teacher, then she was having to deal with things like volleyball practice. Then there were the days when she hung out with friends, and lost track of time. That did not include having certain... 'extracurricular activities' that most girls her age never had to contemplate.

But her mother was not about to take 'my cat made me' as an excuse. That would have taken a lot of explaining, and she couldn't exactly do such a thing. So, she had to weave around people, hoping that she could come up with a good excuse that would have both mother and feline advisor happy.

Of course, part of running _around_ people meant avoiding running _into_ them.

Such a consideration was aptly demonstrated when she slammed headlong into a large man and nearly fell onto her backside, more out of surprise than anything else.

He caught her though, and when he pulled back, she looked up at someone who seemed to be rather... happy. "Well look here. I guess that if I had to be run at by someone, a girl this cute would be a good variation."

"Oh, shut up, would you Chalker?" the woman standing next to him muttered, "And would you let her go?"

"What? I'm just appreciating a pretty face."

"Who's at least half your age, if that."

"You take the fun out of things, you know that Friesner?"

"And you're a pig."

"You act like I'd actually try something," Chalker retorted.

"If you have forgotten, we're supposed to find a certain girl. Not just grabbing anyone on the streets."

"She ran into me, and I was paying her a compliment. Now Miss, I'd suggest that you take it easy from now on. You could get hurt if you ran into someone who couldn't take it."

"Thank you... And sorry about that!" Minako blurted as she dashed off as fast as she could from the two Americans.

Friesner watched the girl go and sighed. "For all we know, that could have been her."

"Could be, but we'd have to be sure. Besides, we're only checking out the purse snatchings that our girl's stopped."

"I'll remember to tell the Major about that."

"You're a real fun girl," Chalker grumbled sarcastically.

* * *

**_author's notes:_**

i've used the names, but not the likenesses or identities, of various SF/F authors mainly as a shout out to them. If any author has a particular desire to have said character renamed to Umblesquick or something, just let me know.


	6. Chapter 6: BOLO, serpent, sailor

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_SciDISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Also note that some text in the original came in different colors, but doesn't support that function as far as i can tell.

Chapter 6: The BOLO, the serpent, and the sailor

* * *

Three large pyramidal ships exited hyperspace in a plume of color.

The system turned out to be mostly normal for solar systems. Outer layer of ice and rock specks, a couple of methane worlds, a fairly large gas giant, a cold rock just outside the habitable zone, one green and blue world, a hothouse world covered in carbon dioxide, and a sun-baked rock in the nearest position. All perfectly normal and unremarkable.

The ha'tak oriented in on the single target world.

Temperature gradiant: slightly cool. Atmosphere: slightly thick, normal mix of gasses. Water easily covered 90% of the surface showing, so it would be extremely humid much of the time.

Deathgliders were at the ready, weapons were primed. It looked as if they would strike with complete surprise.

* * *

Colonel Maybourne was a number of things, an individual who had many different angles involved.

Had things progressed normally he would be often an antagonist for the SGC, though occasionally an ally as well.

Things were going a little bit differently.

"I disagree with any changes made to SGC or its functions at present," he was stating into the phone. "Just look at what they've gotten done already. I may have some problems with their methods - but their results have been successful beyond expectations so far."

The voice at the other end seemed to go on for some time.

"I understand all that, but you did ask my opinion," said Colonel Maybourne. "This civilian group has a pair of my operatives watching it covertly. If they find anything truly momentous - we'll be able to get our hands on their research while remaining hidden. In the meantime this 'Refuge' provides an excellent stalking horse."

Colonel Maybourne frowned slightly at the reply. "Sir, there's a problem with that reasoning. If I may put it this way - putting all our eggheads in one basket merely provides a single target that can be taken out. I do have some... issues with some of the team, but if we can get our hands on power armor. Or better yet - giant robots."

Colonel Maybourne held the handset away from his ear and frowned at it until the noises at the other end had gone back down to acceptable levels. "Sir? You did ask my opinion. Acting independently, they are of more value. Yes sir, yes sir. I'd recommend Excedrin, sir. Thank you. Have a nice day."

* * *

#That is an A.I.? Oh, it's a baby!#

"Well, sort of," said Shion. "It's something I've been working on periodically. Someone I knew worked out the basics and I've been trying to tweak the feedback loops so that it will self-learn."

#Can I see her?#

"It's not a _her_, it's not even working right," responded Shion. "Actually, I was hoping you'd take a look and see what I might have missed."

#Hmmmm. She's not breathing or eating properly, is she?#

"I don't understand what you're asking," admitted Shion.

#Let me see. Ah, here's the problem. She's not quickened and this is a really primitive system. What's her name, anyway?#

"It's not 'quickened'?" asked Shion. "Its a military cryptography and analysis program I've been working on as an AI project. Originally designed in case we or law enforcement came into possession of computers with encrypted and hidden files. It would be uploaded to the system where it would infiltrate and then decode and categorize the information on the system, then act as an operating system and library retrieval."

#I see here. Her name is KOS-MOS. She's gonna be a cutie.#

"Why do you insist on calling it a 'her'?" asked Shion, who felt that if this continued she'd most likely fall into the same pattern. It was a set of interlinked software programs with self-adjusting feedback loops. Gender was not something she felt came into play.

#Kryptographic Organizing System - Military Operating System. 'Kos-mos' for short. This computer is too small for her though. You'll need something bigger.#

"It's the most advanced laptop I could get," admitted Shion. "Maybe we'll run across something bigger out there."

#I don't know, I... uh oh. We have visitors.#

"Visitors?" asked Shion.

* * *

"Sam, stop playing with that cube. Just put it down."

Samantha Carter reluctantly tossed the cube to one of the boys nearby.

"So we go off to go save the universe," said Jack. "I'm surprised we got such a turn out."

"Well, we are based out of SGC Cheyenne Mountain," pointed out Captain Carter. "It's not like we're leaving permanently though. It's just that this is not our base."

"I'll be running a brief checkup when we get back," said Doctor Frazier. "I think Colonel O'Neill may need to take off a couple of pounds."

There were brief smiles at Jack's look of profound indignation.

A siren began to play its mournful sound.

"I told 'em not to use that except in case of emergencies," grumped Jack.

"I do not think that this is a drill," said Teal'c, scanning the skies.

"Oh, well in that case," said Jack, glancing to see the iris still in place on the Stargate.

"Death Gliders," announced Daniel, who had also been looking skyward.

"Oh, that's what that means," announced Jack before he dove for cover.

* * *

Ranma Saotome was out of his element.

Had there been ground troops, he would know what to do. As it was he was on the ground facing enemies who were shooting from a long distance. Being caught out in the open near the Stargate, he could try slipping into the Umisenken but wasn't sure that was effective when the other side had radar or something like that.

He had some kids in here with him, and he wasn't too sure about his ability to cover them at any rate.

* * *

Hotaru watched as Ranma was pinned down inside one of those sandbag-rings by weapons fire. She saw a child occasionally poke his or her head up only to duck down again as an explosion came nearby.

Hotaru saw a trio of Death Gliders wheel around for another pass.

Purple light flared.

The staff weapon that appeared in her hand was not that typically used by a Goa'uld.

* * *

"Whoa," said Daniel Jackson, pointing away from their location towards the path that led to the village.

"So that's what they were talking about," said Jack O'Neil as a shy girl he'd gotten to know was replaced by an Incarnate Goddess Of Destruction.

"Silence Glaive Surprise!" Purple lightning sliced into one ship, sheared off half of a second, and briefly touched the third Death Glider. _POOM! POOM! POOM!_

"How is she doing that?!" Samantha Carter exclaimed as the girl in purple pointed her polearm.

"Why are you asking me?!" asked Daniel. "I'm a linguist and archaeologist."

"Damnit Jim. I'm a doctor, not a parapsychologist," added Doctor Frazier.

"Uh oh," said Jack O'Neill, ignoring the physician making an obscure reference. "Are the mountains moving?"

"What do you mean 'are the' -?!" Samantha Carter looked in the direction Colonel O'Neill was looking. "Well, I'll be."

* * *

The one in purple was his main lead to the ancient enemy, however her actions had been entirely within patterns the Bolo knew from honorable people and were not those of that enemy.

The actions of those in the ships above were not honorable.

These so-called tau'ri were also not aware of the ancient enemy that had attacked this city, and were trying to get answers. It was time to end the skulking in the shadows, time to do the duty that had been assigned long ago.

The Bolo went to war.

* * *

"Cha'hai!" called out one of Hotaru's Jaffa, though the straffing death gliders were of concern.

"Depet reshwet herew," said another Jaffa, still wearing her Earth pajamas.

_PHOOOM!_

"The Goddess does battle!" T'ctac declared. "Today is a good day to - let the other side die!"

"Works for me," said another Jaffa.

"Why are the mountains... moving?" asked D'arc, hefting her chosen weapon.

"Since it is destroying death gliders, it might be another servant of the goddess," reasoned T'ctac. "Or something like a ha'tak. It destroys our enemies - is that not enough for now?"

"For now," admitted D'arc, admiring the way T'ctac stood tall and proud. What a pity he didn't spend more time like this. "I-"

Then the world seemed to be consumed in white.

* * *

"Holy-" said O'Neill as he hastily blinked his eyes even behind his sunglasses. That had been bright.

"That is not a Goa'uld weapon," said Teal'c with absolute confidence.

"What is ?!" Daniel blinked again to make sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing. "That's... big."

"Is that on our side?" asked Jack with the sort of wistful tone of a child who knew exactly what he wanted for Christmas.

"Don't drool sir, it's unbecoming of a superior officer," said Corporal Heinlein from his position nearby.

* * *

"What happened?!" growled Apophis.

"Sire, the _Ko'ra_ is not there anymore," said a subordinate.

"What do you mean 'not there'? Explain!" Apophis did not sound amused at the prospect of one third of his attack force being missing.

"Some sort of attack from the planet surface," said the subordinate.

"Put full power to shields, then find the point of origin for the attack," commanded Apophis.

"Another attack is incoming! Targetting the _Apep's Sting_."

* * *

The first blast hit the shields and was stopped by the barrier.

There was a brief pause as this was analyzed.

The first blast of the second attack hit the barrier and was stopped. The second blast was less than one tenth of a second after that and caused the barrier to escalate in frequency. The third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh blasts were all within tenth-seconds of each other and cycled the barrier out of the visible spectrum to the point where it was into the ultraviolet end of things.

Round number eight made it through the barrier, the ninth through the hull of the ha'tak and the tenth through eleventh rounds sailed through the debris field.

Apophis was reluctant to sound a retreat. He was rather more reluctant to be annihilated when he didn't know what he was facing. "Back to Chulak. Now!"

"I have a picture of the origin of the attack."

"Now!" repeated Apophis.

"Our Death Gliders have not yet returned?"

_SHUMMMMM!_ went a hand weapon.

Apophis turned to the next subordinate in line. "We leave. Now."

* * *

Antiaircraft weaponry had been brought through from Earth and turned towards the Stargate. They were now turned towards the sky.

Death Gliders appeared to become confused as their overwhelming technological advantage was becoming considerably less overwhelming. That and their base ship didn't appear to be there any longer.

"(This is Teal'c,)" boomed a voice from loudspeakers and across certain frequencies. "(Some of you know me. Your false god has abandoned you and fled. Any who set their ships down intact and surrender will be allowed to leave this world through the Stargate. Fail to do so immediately and you shall be destroyed.)"

The guns of Refuge fell silent as the wheeling attack ships broke off their attacks to apparently argue over their radios about this development.

"Kalach shal tek!" announced one Death Glider, breaking off and heading down, weapons spitting fire towards the transmission tower.

_FWOOOM!_ went some attack from somewhere in the camp near the Stargate.

"(Is there anyone else who wishes to choose death?)" boomed the voice of Teal'c across the airwaves.

* * *

It was an obviously untenable situation for any one, as the pilots of those Death Gliders were left behind by their fellows, and stuck on a planet where the enemy had more, and better, firepower, with the ability to get more. As a result, they were stuck having to figure out just what to do on their own, and were likely to be screwed no matter what choice they decided upon.

One tried to do a kamikaze run anyway, and chose a position away from the one who made the other ships blow up. The idea was clearly to hit something before she got them. And had things been a little different they might have made it.

But Bonepart proved that he was quite capable of blowing up flying bad guys too.

After that, it became clear that there was no way an attack would work. Doing so would just be a quick way to die, and trying to fly home wouldn't help since that would take a _long_ time. Some still ran and hightailed it for somewhere on the planet where they could hide out.

However, it was the guys who were getting out of the landing Death Gliders that were the main focus of attention at the moment.

Colonel Mayborne was too busy trying not to choke as he considered the fighter craft now waiting for Earth borne hands to check them out. Each of them was intact for the most part, and he could see at least three of them waiting in what had only been a grassy field a few moments earlier.

"Sweet..." O'Neill drawled. "Now this is the sort of thing that I want when enemies come."

"Sir?" Carter asked.

"Most of the time they're blowing stuff up. This time they brought gifts."

"Some of them ran away instead. We can track them of course. But I'm not quite sure that's what the pilots here intended..."

"Well, it's what we got. And you get us such nice things, young lady," Jack said to an approaching Hotaru, who blushed. "I just have to wonder about one thing..."

Daniel turned from looking at the captured crafts, and blinked. "What's that?"

"Do these come in red? Nice cherry red finish would go great, don't you think?"

"I am sure that paint can be purchased to color one of them to your preference," Teal'c commented.

"Cool."

* * *

As she leapt lightly to the empty park, Sailor V wiped her brow and sighed. Another yoma had shown up, and once more she'd been there to wipe it out. Fortunately, it had only be a small bit of trouble, and she'd come away from it relatively unscathed. And she'd gotten to a place where she could change back to her regular self without risking being seen. A place like a park was much better in her opinion because she didn't have to make excuses for why she was coming down out of a building she shouldn't have been in, or something like that.

The problem was that as soon as she came to a standing position with her hands at her sides, she heard a click that certainly was _not_ natural. "Hello? Who's there?"

"Hello, Sailor V. We've been looking forward to meeting you," said a man in what looked like an American military uniform as he stepped out of the shadows to where she could see him. "My name is Major Davis, and I've been sent to... meet you."

"Is that so? And why would you want to meet little old me? Are you a fan?"

"Hardly. My government has sent me to seek you out."

"Really?" the blonde asked with a blink. "What do they want with me?"

"It has recently come to our notice that you are not the 'urban legend' some have thought you were."

"Well, _duh_. I mean, I don't exactly call meeting people being fake."

"True, but you have to understand that we can not just take people's word for it. But now we know that you are real. And so we have a situation to deal with."

"'A situation'? What sort of 'situation'?" she asked suspiciously.

"The sort that only you can assist in, and it's of _global_ significance. Our mission is to first find out information about you. Second to talk to you. And third, bring you in if possible. The last will only happen if you agree to to go with us."

"What if I want to leave by myself? Hmm? Are you going to stop me? Because I don't think you could do it. If you tried to make me stay, then you'd get hurt."

"Alone, I'd be hurt even if I wanted to force you into doing anything, which I don't," he said with a shake of his head, and a group of soldiers, each of them bearing machine guns over their shoulders, crept out where she could see them, causing her to get wide eyed. "But they would do much to help if you turned out to be some sort of attacker. We won't force you to go with us, or to stay, though."

"Huh?"

"We want you to join us of your own free will. But if you cause trouble, we have ways of dealing with it, especially if you try to talk about this with any unauthorized individuals."

"What would you do?"

"Plenty... Miss Aino."

"EH?! How... er... Who's that?" Sailor V said in a trembling voice as she tried to give a smile that wasn't nervous. "Never heard of her. Nope. Not a single thing. New to me."

"Minako Aino, thirteen. Both father and mother living. Best friend, Hikaru Sorano. Currently a junior high student in here in London while your father works in the local company office. Secret identity, 'Sailor V', a crimefighter and 'monster buster' of some fame. Grades... not the best, but you get by."

"I _still_ can't believe that it's her," muttered a soldier.

"Shut up," the woman next to him snapped.

Sailor V knew that she'd heard them before, but was too focused on the current problem to care. "I... I... I don't know what you're talking about..."

"Miss Aino, we have video of you transforming, time stamped pictures of you coming out of places where 'Sailor V' disappeared only moments earlier, and vice versa," Davis told her, "Various other evidence collected at the scenes of your appearances can prove that you are one in the same. Now, would you like to stop the stalling, or shall we just go tell your parents what you've been doing in your spare time?"

Images of her mother blowing her top filtered throughout the teen's mind. "No... No... I... don't think that you have to..."

"Good. Now, I think it's time that we have a talk. Nothing else. You can go at any time."

"If you say so..."

"It is. Trust us. If you are the type of person that you seem to be, we can make this very good for you. And you might like what we do."

The skirted heroine didn't know if she believed that, but she wasn't sure if she had much of a choice at the moment.

* * *

"She won?" asked Mrs Aino.

"She won!" agreed Mr Aino.

"I won..." said Minako, having a better idea of what was coming and trying to suppress a yawn.

"A scholarship to a military academy in America," said Mr Aino. "I didn't even know there was such a contest."

"Imagine that," said Minako.

"All your school supplies are paid for," said a much more enthusiastic Mrs Aino.

"Yay," said Minako with no enthusiasm whatsoever.

"Just what is needed to get those grades up," said Mrs Aino, a steely glint in her eyes.

"Lots of practice with English," said Mr Aino. "That will come in handy with college entry exams."

"I'm only fourteen," protested Minako.

"All the more reason to start now," said Mrs Aino, beginning to smile.

* * *

Ares looked around. "I love the smell of burning rivals in the morning. Chulak is mine now."

The Jaffa didn't look up, they didn't comment. They knew their place.

"Prepare a suitable welcome for Apophis when he returns," said Ares, evil smile in place. "He has sufficiently weakened his forces that his holdings will fall one after the other into my hand."

The Jaffa dispersed, going about their duties.

* * *

Bonaparte sent a quick series of signals to the cube. It peeled open gracefully, though the way the Professor seized the contents sacrificed grace for speed.

"Stargate addresses?!" said the Professor, examining the stone. "Interesting. And this is... a lunch."

"A sort of chicken leg, and fried potatoes?" asked Corporal Halderman.

"Or reasonable facsimile," said the Professor. "Have an analysis done on them. I expect that if these ancient builders stored a lunch in this device - we can infer something of their biochemistry from what they ate. It is these addresses within some longer text message that I find intriguing. We'll have to get a linguist on this immediately."

* * *

Genma Saotome was large and had a number of bad qualities. He knew martial arts however.

Had things occurred with his old buddy Soun Tendo, he would have ended up engaging his son to take over a small dojo in a mainly industrial ward of Tokyo. Things had gone a bit differently.

"This will be the main hall," decided Genma, sketching out the basics before the various craftsmen. "The monastary will serve two major functions. First - this will be the dojo where I instruct the, uhm, Jaffa candidates in fighting techniques. I will provide the hand to hand and martial arts weapons training. Colonel Zimmer-Bradley will provide training in Earth modern weapons. Busk'rk will teach the staff weapon, the zat gun, and other Jaffa weapons. The other function of the monastery is as an emergency refuge we can retreat to should the need ever arise."

"Will the goddess bless this building herself?" asked one of the craftsmen.

"Of course," said Genma smoothly, not having thought of it himself but certainly not averse to such a thing. If it meant that other people were a bit more enthusiastic about building his dojo where he could eventually have a comfortable retirement - it sounded darn good to him.

"What of these small rooms here?" asked a stonemason.

"These are rooms for the students," said Genma, using designs he'd seen in movies and in real monastaries during his travels. "Over here we have the kitchen."

"Big kitchen," commented a worker.

"It has to be," pointed out the stonemason from earlier. "If the village is to retreat there in time of need - extra space on such things is to be required."

"Ahhhh," said several of the workers.

Genma nodded. He hadn't thought of that angle himself, but hey - whatever worked.

* * *

"So where are we going next?" asked Jack, a little disappointed that he didn't get a death glider. Or a tank. Or anything else spiffy.

"Try not to sulk, sir," whispered Captain Carter.

"P3X-797," said one of the techs in the control room.

"I never really thought of one of these little guys as inadequate before," said Jack, glancing down at his M-90.

"Colonel, you have your orders," said General Hammond. "Just be glad you didn't go through to that Mongol world."

"Mongols?" asked Daniel, a little intrigued.

"At least that's what SG-9 reported when they made the trip," said Hammond. "As part of their welcoming to this warrior society they had to drink fermented milk flavored with mare's blood."

"Sounds... yummy," said Jack, making a face that indicated he was just as happy to pass on the opportunity.

"Two of SG-9 promptly went on sick-call after their return," indicated General Hammond. "Apparently there's a protein that experienced some form of drift after the horses were imported to that world. Doctor Frazier reports 20% of people from Earth are going to suffer rather severe food poisoning from that."

"I've had food poisoning before," admitted Jack. "Rather not do it too often again."

"Well sir, maybe this will be a simple mission," tried Captain Carter. "We could use it after Refuge and the battle."

"There's one more thing," said Hammond, growing more businesslike in manner as he turned to a new order of business. "You saw what Hotaru did. I've seen the footage."

"Yeah," said Jack. "Don't understand it. As I gather, she doesn't understand it either."

"We've found another and are bringing her here. She's called 'Sailor V' and was in England," said the General. "We're still trying to figure out what we have here, but I wanted to let you know ahead of time."

"Another like HER," asked Jack.

"From initial interviews, they may be born human but contain some genetically engineered mechanism for these odd abilities. This 'Sailor V' has been fighting some form of alien or something, and she apparently has identified herself as a defender of Earth," said General Hammond, looking directly at Daniel Jackson.

"You think there may have been a second group of aliens around the time of the Goa'uld," realized Doctor Jackson. "One less hostile towards the natives?"

"Possibly, or ones with their own agenda," admitted the General. "We're just feeling our ways around in the dark, people. Let's see if we can't shed some light on the subject."

* * *

"Luna?"

"Artemis? Where's Sailor V?"

"She didn't want to put me through a six month quarantine in customs, so I returned to Japan with her parents."

"There's something strange going on," said Luna. "I could swear I've seen shadows skulking around that are apparently just normal humans."

"That's part of what alarms me," said Artemis. "I think normal humans have gotten involved."

"They'll be slaughtered," realized Luna. "They don't stand a chance in this kind of fight. Oh, that's terrible!"

"Tell me about it," complained Artemis.

* * *

"I still have trouble with some aspects of this assignment. Talking cats?" asked the wiretapping soldier as the team sat in the van.

"Might be Goa'uld, though I'd think they were too small to serve as hosts," said a more thoughtful specialist. "Maybe a related species?"

"Could be, but whatever we're dealing with, it's worth reporting."

"Well, I do hope that we can make talking cats sound serious."

"Not only that."

The specialist raised a brow. "Hmm?"

"One of them was apparently a companion to 'Sailor V'. If there was another one out there..."

"Then there might be others."

"Exactly. And that means that we'll have to call this one in."

"I do have to wonder how many of them are around. Can't be more than three, right?"

"Who knows?" the soldier said with a shrug, "It's not our place to figure out possible situations. We're to provide facts... and let some poor idiot deal with the details."

"Better him than us."

"Too true."

* * *

Apophis was not happy System Lord by any stretch of the imagination.

He'd gone forth, fully certain that he'd surprise each and every shol'vah on the cursed planet, and get to destroy them along side the Tau'ri, thus showing the power to crush any betrayal as soon as it popped up.

Now he was returning to his world in defeat so utter that it burned just by thinking about it. His death gliders had been swatted from the sky, and, with a weapon he would never have thought existed, two of his motherships were destroyed. All he had left was one ship, and even _that_ was not up to full strength. After leaving in such expected triumph, he was forced to return with his tail between his legs.

"Open communications with Chulak so that I can speak with them," he ordered in a near growl, "I would have them ready for their Lord's return."

"Yes, My Lord," reported an underling, and the screen flickered in on the familiar confines of his own palace.

However, what he was seeing was not the sight of the Jaffa he'd left to man the communications equipment.

"ARES?!" Apophis snarled, "What are you doing in my palace?!"

"Correction. _My_ palace," the other System Lord replied.

"What manner of foolishness is this?! Where are the Jaffa that I ordered to await my return?!"

"Quite dead, I assure you. They were not strong enough to fend off my forces, but I'll commend you on one thing. Every one of them was loyal to the end. But even their dedication to you did not save you from what has happened. Chulak is now _mine_."

"It is _my_ world!"

A small smirk curved Ares' mouth. "Then, by all means, come home, but do not expect a warm reception. I have stationed my ships around this world, and my Jaffa have had time to rest after the battle. You, on the other hand, are just coming back after fighting, and had already been weakened before that."

"Grr..."

"Frustration is rather hard to swallow, isn't it? Almost as bad as losing..."

"You have not heard the end of this!"

"I but await whatever small response your meager strength will allow. Or your agreement to serve your new Lord..."

As the communication flicked off on the sight of Ares chuckling, Apophis slammed a hand onto the arm of his throne, and ground his teeth together. His shoulders shook with repressed anger at this latest turn of events. It was almost as if fate was working against him, but he would not allow that to drag him down. He _would_ succeed, and devastate all those who stood in his way.

* * *

Were things unchanged, Sailor V would have been back in Japan upon Sailor Moon's awakening. Were things unchanged, in this timeline - the Stargate program would have been shut down by Senator Kinsey and the money redistributed to a series of "pork barrell" projects such as the "Little Big Horn Memorial Park" gaining three new statues and a kiddie playground.

Were things unchanged, Sailor Saturn would be a demonically possessed little girl whose bad side would come out and then retreat to let the innocent be shunned and hated. Were the timeline unaltered, Genma and Ranma Saotome would be in Shibuya and Ryoga Hibiki's lunches would be stolen on a regular basis.

This was not an unchanged, unaltered, timeline. It had been twisted and fused in all sorts of ways and was now running around quite handily without anyone micromanaging anything.

There was a guardian of the Gates Of Time, charged with their defense and with the defense of the future utopia of Crystal Tokyo. Her name was Sailor Pluto and she'd inadvertantly caused said twisting and fusing while attempting to get things back on track to said future utopia. If Sailor Pluto had noticed any major divergences, she would have been quite upset instead of having a calm moment of contemplation and serenity whilst making a really good pot of tea.

She didn't, therefore she was and it did indeed turn out to be quite a good pot of tea. She even managed to get some of those gaufres they made down in Kobe and have a light snack while relaxing at her post.

Maybe it was just as well.

At the very same time that Sailor Pluto was enjoying her quiet time:  
* Jack O'Neill, Teal'c, Samantha Carter, and Daniel Jackson were entering a Stargate to go to P3X-797 where they would find a strange disease that caused some people to revert to savage behavior.  
* Genma Saotome was breaking ground for his new monastery/dojo/retirement.  
* Professor Tomoe was entering the first set of Stargate coordinates into the Refuge DHD while the beginning members of SG-X stood nearby, watching the screen that would show the images from their MALP.  
* A world had just begun exploring its own Stargate when someone brought home a large bug whose sting had some very nasty tendencies and commenced the fall of their own civilization.  
* A girl named Minako Aino was on her way to a new school in the United States.  
* Another girl, this one named Usagi Tsukino, was snoozing and would awaken late and be late for class. Again.  
* The giant tank dubbed "a BOLO" by one of the soldiers had commenced negotiations with a team of diplomats regarding the possibility of mutual cooperation and the sharing of knowledge, yadda yadda.  
* A mechanic whose schooling had been in part financed by the JSDF was on his way to a top secret post in the United States because of paperwork getting crossed and forms notated in all the right places, which oddly enough caused a General Hammond to spot the name and briefly sport a mysterious smirk. His whispered comment "Ah, so that's how it happened." would not have been understood by anyone even if they'd gotten close.  
* Two mooncats were observing Sailor Moon and her fight against the yoma. US Special Forces and Japanese operatives were monitoring the two mooncats. The major point of conflict at the moment was dealing with weapons (the US wanted high precision and high caliber, the Japanese wanted low profile and stealthy.)  
* Apophis was contemplating his resources and how he might yet regain power from the usurper Ares. Fortunately he had other places where his resources were not yet depleted, and he might well deal with this upstart.  
* Specialist Tolkien, a linguist, was working on the rest of the text message recovered from the stasis cube.  


* * *

"Now, what are we supposed to be doing?" asked Corporal Stirling as he looked over the machinery in front of him.

Staff Sergeant Ringo gave an off hand shrug. "We're just following the orders that we've been given."

"Right. But I'd sort of like to figure out what we're doing before we do anything else."

"It's simple. We input the codes, hook up the equipment, and we get a new power grid for the town. That makes it easier for us to be able to work, and to have all sorts of goodies."

"I'm not sure..."

"And they say he's the 'nay-sayer' Lieutenant Allston murmured as he brought in some crates.

"Ha-ha. You really should stick to flying."

"Not much of that to do around here yet. But, I hope that you don't have a problem with acting on that giant tank's instructions."

"Not really. I mean, it does have the schematics and all that," the corporal agreed.

"Besides," joked Ringo, "who's going to argue with something with a gun that big?"

"Too true."

Allston cracked a grin. "So, what's the problem?"

"We don't know how this stuff works exactly, and besides that, it's old."

"And still works, so it has to be pretty hardy, if you ask me. Anyway, if you can plug it in, and run stuff, it'll make me happy."

"A bottle of tequila and a stripper'll do _that_," the sargent drawled.

"Hey, there's no knocking it."

"Except when you're stuck hefting supplies."

"Volunteered for this. Figured that you grunts could use a hand. And it gets me to see what all this stuff's like."

"For a pilot, you don't know much about machines."

"I fly 'em, guys like you fix 'em," the pilot replied.

"Lucky us."

"But it's all of us that will benefit when you get this up and running."

"How do you figure?"

"An entire power grid just servicing us and the refugees? We can do a lot with it. Plus that overgrown shotgun's offered us more stuff later, and says that this will allow us to get access to some things that would need a power system to run."

"That is a good reason," Stirling commented.

Ringo raised a brow at him. "Then get to work soldier."

"Yes, sir!"

* * *

The hydroelectric system had been developed as an emergency backup for the city, and had essentially been "mothballed" but held ready for use. As such - it had been designed with an eye for such things as asteroid collision, earthquakes, and a number of other events which could have knocked the main power out and it had been built to survive.

It had done just that. Of the four channels feeding into the station, three were still ready.

Something akin to turbines rotated as the water was channelled into their chambers.

As far as futuristic generating stations were concerned, the output wasn't that great. Barely a megawatt was produced.

That wasn't the part that impressed the engineers, though they noted that the system used several catches and coriolis forces to further increase the energy for any particular batch of water. The impressive part was how much of the system had survived, with only a few parts that had to be replaced with terrestrial equivelants.

The materials technology was again studied, noting the ceramic metals and oddly crystalline materials that had been used throughout the station.

Which was what led a group of those engineers to explore a sealed room and discover a skeleton that the scarab-beetles had not found in the intervening centuries.

* * *

They had been chosen for expertise in their fields, the ability to improvise, and their ability to keep their mouths shut. This was a clandestine operation after all.

Six United States Marines, four members of the Japanese Self Defense Force, two members of some mysterious Bureau within the Japanese government that everyone else involved immediately filed under "spy stuff" and otherwise ignored.

"We're continuing surveillance, but it's time you all were briefed on this," said the Captain - an older individual who somehow conveyed the impression of old leather. "Everyone knows this is classified so high you can't even tell yourself in a dream, right?"

Nods around the room.

"We've all signed the appropriate paperwork," said one of the Bureau people. "Else we would not be here."

"Here's the first bit," said the Captain, handing out a set of photographs. "A few years back we found this object at Giza."

"Ah, the Stargate," said the Bureau agent who'd spoken earlier.

"I won't ask how you know about that," said the Captain with a frown.

"It is good, for I could not answer you," said the Bureau agent with a minute inclination of his head.

"Hmph, well, for anyone who is not a Japanese James Bond," said the Captain, "what we found is a device much like Professor Soichiro Tomoe had written of in his thesis. A device for nearly instantaneous travel across interstellar space. What he got wrong was the size. It'd fit inside this room. We discovered that humanity has an ancient enemy out there, and evidence of at least two other alien species. We also discovered these gals in the figure skating costumes."

"Sailor Senshi," said the talkative of the two Bureau agents.

"I thought they were an urban legend," said one of the JSDF soldiers.

"Not all urban legends are without basis in fact," said the talkative Bureau agent, not elaborating further despite the long pause given him after that statement.

"In any case, there is apparently an invasion going on here on Earth," said the Captain. "Not the 'Goa'uld' - who are the technologically inclined enemies we found through the Stargate. Instead these are some kind of energy-vampire creature, one of the braincases thinks they may have inspired the whole legend of vampires and the like. We're currently monitoring three of these vampires' opponents."

"Three?" asked the talkative Bureau agent, showing a faint trace of surprise.

"A 'Sailor Moon' here in Tokyo," said the Captain. "There was a 'Sailor Venus' in England who is now on her way to the United States. There is also a third one who was with the Stargate Project when she was discovered."

"Which planet?" asked the Bureau agent.

"If the symbol indicates anything, she's 'Saturn'," said the Captain.

"Hmmmm," said the Bureau agent, not elaborating but looking thoughtful.

"We've picked up where Sailor Venus left off in England," said the Captain, holding up an odd serpentine weapon. "Conventional weapons are largely ineffective against these 'yoma' though we have discovered some useful things. They don't like being shot with these 'zat guns' and they don't like white phosphorous or flame throwers. Energy weapons appear more effective than slugthrowers. We have three of these and two staff weapons to assign you, shoot 'em sparingly as we have trouble getting ahold of the energy cells for these things."

"A 'zat gun'?" asked a JSDF soldier.

"Easier to pronounce," said the Captain, shooting a bolt at a radio. The radio sparked and thin vapors escaped its casing. "One shot will stun a normal human, hurts like hell and is kind of like being hit with a taser. Two shots can kill. Three shots within five minutes and the body disintegrates. Staff weapons are clumsy, are hard to aim effectively, and fire a plasma bolt."

"So what do these enemy look like?" asked the other JSDF soldier. "According to the stories of these yoma, they mainly look silly."

"Yes, that does appear to be the case," admitted the Captain. "We're going with the idea that the silly appearance is part of their planning. People might tend to discount them or fail to run away because it's hard to take them seriously as a menace."

"So we're watching this 'Sailor Moon'?" asked one of the Marines. "What's our mission objective?"

"We stay in the background, observe, and stand ready," said the Captain. "If it looks necessary, we provide fire support. Anyone else have questions - ask 'em now."

"Not a question, more a point of information," said one of the Bureau members. "Whether these abilities are psychic or some other force we don't completely understand, there are certain things about such we can infer from existing stories about those with some form of 'power from within'. One is that the confidence of the wielder is directly related to their strength. If one of these 'psychic girls' experiences doubts in combat, we therefore should act to reinforce her confidence."

"Call out encouragement?" asked the Captain. "Couldn't hurt, I suppose. We'll keep things secret as long as we can. When we determine that these 'psychic girls' are actually as they state 'defenders of humanity' - then we can make contact. Otherwise we will only be making limited contact while acting in a support role."

* * *

Minako Aino let out a deep breath as she rode the elevator. She really wasn't pleased with this turn of events, as she felt that being a 'defender of the earth' really ought to give her a bit more slack.

"...high level meetings..."

"...scheduled tour of the facility..."

"Miss Aino?" asked the guard. "The doors are open."

"Oh right," said the listless Minako, still preoccupied with how things had gotten completely out of her control.

"Your quarters are right over here," said the guard, trying his absolute best to project as little threat as possible. He had interpreted her sullen act as feeling threatened or intimidated, therefore he was trying to be as non-intimidating as a six foot four inch, two hundred thirty pound, Marine could be.

"Huh," said Minako, still fretting. Who knew what kind of sinister experiments they would subject her to?!

The Marine led her through the corridors to stop in front of a door that looked like a lot of other doors, opening it and turning on a light inside. "Now there'll be someone nearby at all times, Miss Aino. We understand that you might have some difficulties adapting and so if you want anything in particular, just ask and we'll try to comply."

"Right," said Minako, looking over the spartan looking prison cell.

"Understand you might want a futon instead of a regular bed, but we've got bedrolls if it comes to that - they're kinda like a futon," said the Marine.

"Uh huh," agreed Minako, walking in and plopping down on the mattress.

"The TV there gets cable," tried the Marine.

"Yeah," said Minako.

"..." said the Marine, whose experience with teenage girls had not included any reticient ones. "Doctor Frasier will be by at 1500 hours. If you want to catch up on your shuteye until then..."

Minako watched the door close behind the Marine. Great. NOW what to do?

Hmmm. She wondered if she got any premium channels on that TV.

* * *

_thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk-CHOOOM!_

The Stargate's event horizon glistened in the manner of a sheet of water briefly before a small tank trundled out and passed the MALP probe that had preceeded it.

Three more figures, then a final pair, followed before the Stargate went quiescent again.

"We've only got an hour in each tank," cautioned Leona unnecessarily as they'd all heard the Professor telling them this three times prior to departure. "Keep an eye on your gauges. Switch tanks when necessary."

Confirming MALP data, said Bonaparte's voice. Atmosphere is thin carbon dioxide. Zero humidity. Ambient temperature -45 degrees celsius. Are your protective suits sufficient for these conditions?

"So far so good," said Ranma, shifting around. "Not used to wearing this many layers though. Slows me down."

"I can hardly move," admitted Hotaru from somewhere in the bundle of clothing and gear she was wearing.

"Take a look at these cracks in the walls here, Uzuki," said Al, who'd immediately moved to check out the nearest of the walls. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Thermal damage, extreme cooling and heating," said Shion as she inspected the wall as well. "Fits with what the Professor came up with."

"I didn't follow half of what he was talking about," confessed Ranma.

Shion was used to explaining things to nonscientifically inclined businessmen. Her response was practically automatic. "Okay, according to Teal'c - the Stargates were developed by a race that predate the Goa'uld. That it was this Ancient race up and leaving their tech behind that gave the Goa'uld their big boost to become the nasties they are. The Stargates were originally placed by this race on hundreds of thousands of worlds, and some of those worlds were inhabitable then but aren't inhabitable now. The Professor thought this one might be an orbital instability, meaning it swung too far out from the sun and is hitting an orbit more like Mars."

"The thermal shifts might indicate something more erratic, a near cometary orbit where it passes close to the sun," said Al. "Though I've only seen damage like this in simulations."

"Take samples, there's enough pieces broken off that we can obtain a wide sampling," instructed Shion.

"Weird sky," said Ranma, peering through his goggles.

"Hmmmm?" Shion looked up. "Globular cluster?"

"What's that?" asked Hotaru, looking up at all the stars.

"It's an area of space with fairly new stars that are relatively tightly packed," responded Shion, turning back to the walls. She'd get pictures later, for now the job was investigating these walls. "Looks like the same sort of materials technology."

"Hey, I think ya oughta look at this," said Ranma, having gone around a nearby corner.

Oh my.

* * *

The teams from Refuge and Earth had both scrambled to make this First Contact. Having been around Bonaparte, the idea of an AI tank was less unimaginable than it might have been.

Had it been possible to scramble any faster than they had - it would have required VTOL or instantaneous transmission.

Those who began those negotiations had found the huge tank was logical, calm, precise, and puts its own agenda up front. It was going to defend this world. It wanted to know what had happened. It wanted to strike back at the enemy that had struck down its builders. It was willing to allow Refuge to be settled. It did not completely trust the human species, pointing out that the data it had available indicated that the species had a number of people of less than completely honorable manner.

There were other details that could be and would be negotiated. Chief among these was the sharing of data. The first "chip" thrown on the table had been the existence of the hydroelectric plant and what was necessary to bring it up to functional.

Once the station was operating, the goodwill of both parties was demonstrated - the human side by allocating power back for the BOLO's use. Solar and wind power were also distinct possibilities - especially as there was a constant wind through the local mountain passes and the mountains naturally channelled it into a single direction.

Mining and factories were distinct possibilities, but one of the BOLO's "wants" then became something else to negotiate. The city was the grave of its creators. Memorials or at least a good deal of natural preserve were something the BOLO wanted. On the other hand, it was quite leary of giving too much technology to the humans at once. It was much less concerned with slowly giving out "pointers" though.

Just indicating something was possible should be a big help but slow things down to where their society could handle it.


	7. Chapter 7: traveling man

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_SciDISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Also note that some text in the original came in different colors, but doesn't support that function as far as i can tell.

Chapter 7: Traveling Man

* * *

Meanwhile, on T272-349 Ranma was pointing around one corner of the maze surrounding the Stargate at what looked like a terrestrial park, except that it was frozen over ages ago. Wide swatches of what had once been filled with the native approximation of grass were crossed by walkways and the occasional tree. A small water feature took up a spot at an intersection, and signs stood as silent words from the individuals who'd placed them. But the whole thing was covered in a layer of ice that had obviously been there for a _very_ long time.

"That seems really creepy..." Hotaru whispered.

Ranma nodded. "You don't have to tell me twice. That's just something not right about it."

"It's because it's dead. I can imagine people being here, and they're... not. Something like that's spooky..."

"Sort of like when you're at school when everyone else has gone home," Shion commented.

"Exactly!"

"What you're feeling isn't totally because of the emptiness. It's because we're invading a quiet that's been here for a very long time."

The violet eyed girl wrapped her arms around herself and shivered from something other than the cold. "I didn't realize... Now I'm thinking of graveyards..."

"Don't worry," Ranma told her, "We'll keep each other safe."

"Thank you..."

"No problem."

"But that may be one," Al said and nodded down towards one of the buildings in the distance.

"What d'ya mean?"

"It looks almost like a..."

"'Pyramid'," Shion finished and frowned. "It's odd though. It looks almost like took Aztec, Egyptian and Cambodian ruins and squashed them together to make a building style..."

"That shouldn't have happened... should it?"

"I don't know, but Doctor Jackson did say that there were probably decendants of the ancient peoples the System Lords took from Earth still out on some planet or another. And Teal'c did say that they were conquering worlds that weren't controlled by the Goa'uld, so..."

"They had to be free in the first place."

"Exactly. But that's not what worries me," the scientist admitted.

"What do you mean?"

"This is in one piece. _All_ of it is in one piece. If these conditions were due to a gradual shift in the orbit, I would have thought that there would have been more damage."

"Maybe they figured out what was going on and escaped while they could. Leaving everything as is."

"That is a possibility."

#Can I just say something though?# Boneparte asked. #Please be careful. This place might be worse than just being cold...#

"Oh?"

#It might be bad for humans, but that doesn't mean that there aren't nasty things that can live like this.#

"I have to agree with him. This _is_ another planet, and we don't know what kind of things are out there. We _can_ shoot them, but I'd kind of like a clear shot," Leona told them.

Shion gave off a small chuckle. "And I'd want to give you one on any monsters or defenses they left to greet us."

"That's all I ask for."

"I'd prefer not to face something that'd eat me, thank you," Al complained.

"Sorry, but if you wanted to pick the place to go to, you should have stayed home," Shion informed him.

* * *

T272-349:

"No, that's it, we can't go much further without additional air tanks," said Shion, trudging back towards the Stargate.

#At least we know what happened to the inhabitants.#

"Not much comfort in that," said Ranma.

"Whatever happened, they had a little warning," said Al.

"Fat lotta good that did 'em," said Leona, shifting her rifle around nervously.

#Any ideas what happened?#

"Yeah," said Shion. "Try this theory out. This world here is a pastoral one, high civilization, very pacificistic. Great view of a nearby globular cluster. Problem is that a brown dwarf or other gravitational body goes through their system. This planet gets shifted out of orbit. So instead of a roughly circular one, it makes an orbit that goes past a Mars equivalent for their 'winter' and about 'Venus' at the height of 'summer'."

"So there would be a narrow 'spring' and 'autumn' that would be inhabitable," said Al.

#This world does not appear to have much in the way of resources to recommend it.#

"No, but surviving technology is available here. Not everything's been wrecked from the temperature variations," said Al. "Though it's a bit primitive for us to get anything useful."

"That pyramid is too far off. The next team will need extra oxygen tanks, maybe full space suits and some kind of rover." Shion went to the DHD and began punching out symbols.

* * *

Colonel Maybourne could be a real weasel. There were things he wanted, and ideals he would fight for. He may have kept this image of himself, sitting on a streambank somewhere as he fished away a lazy afternoon. That was his retirement goal, if he lived that long and didn't have something come up. In the meantime he had to earn that.

Other than that one of his core points was the concept of 'peace through superior firepower' - as long as the USA had the superior weaponry and technology - then it was his own country that would have the best future in terms of economic and military might. As long as that was the case, his own people and country were safer than might otherwise be the case. If his own country did something that struck him as wrong, he consoled himself as not having all the facts. He didn't like unpleasant truths and shied away from them whenever he could get away from them.

It didn't make him evil, but it did make for conflicts between him and those with other philosophies.

However, events had been playing into another Old Dream of his. When he'd been a kid he'd watched Astro Boy and some of those other Japanese cartoons. Hadn't seen much lately, but he'd remembered Raideen and Danguard Ace and some of that stuff.

The prospect of having a REAL (all caps and double underlined) Giant Robot - or platoon of same?

"The Bolo is not giving us all the details of his higher systems technology," complained a scientist.

"What do you expect?" Colonel Maybourne asked. "These Artificial Intelligences are giving us details on technology which are several generations more primitive than their own - that's completely true. On the other hand this is stuff we can use NOW without having to spend a lot of time back-engineering. What about those fuel cells?"

"Tricky to recharge sir," said a tech as she looked up from her bench. "We could make replaceable banks of them though. Have trucks on the field pull the old ones, put new ones in - then scoot back to where sufficient resources can recharge the spent cells."

"Will it work?" asked the Colonel, looking back towards the scientist.

"Well, I suppose it could," admitted the scientist.

"Ah," sighed the Colonel. He could just picture it. Multi-ton walking tanks that could protect soldiers from enemy fire while looking big and impressive enough that some enemies would run just from the sight of them! Since there were engineering and repair projects that were undertaken by military personnel, Giant Robots were a distinct possibility. For the ground troops - something like the power armor from Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" perhaps?

"Why do we have to have a simulation field that looks like downtown Tokyo though?" asked the scientist.

"Doctor, there are some things which simply have to be," said Colonel Maybourne. "That's one of them."

* * *

"We've got a signal - it's SG-X," said Br'tnni.

"Open the iris," commanded Chupak.

As the figures waddled (still dressed in layers of clothing) through the Gate, Chupak gestured to them. "Hurry up. There's a storm about to break and we want to shut down the electrical equipment to avoid shorting things out."

Several of the team members looked up at the grayish-green clouds and quickly began shucking off their cold weather gear.

Bonaparte looked up and came to the same conclusion. #This could be a problem.#

* * *

"This is our first indication of what the city-builders looked like," said Specialist DeCamp while Specialist Lieber filmed. "Assuming that this is an adult, they were approximately four and a half feet tall. Skull shape has components of both primate and canine development. Muzzle and teeth structure are particularly canine. Note that the individual has a tail extending from the spine. Stocky build, possibly used to a higher gravity than we're used to. Get a pan of the room, will you please?"

Leiber obligingly did a slow turn of the room, recording everything for later dissection.

"The room was hermetically sealed," continued DeCamp. "Dust precipitated out of the air while it was sealed off. One reason we're reluctant to disturb anything. Sterile environment - little evidence of bacteriological breakdowns. We've had to shoo away those scarab beetles several times now - they're apparently natural scavengers. We're going for the moment with some sort of neutron or radiation weapon utilized here. Whatever hit was able to kill off the bacteria here, and there's evidence that the room was sealed from the inside. Whoever this was, he knew something was wrong and barricaded himself in here. Would you focus on the burn?"

Leiber focussed the camera and zoomed in on a spot on one wall.

"The scorched area is approximately six inches across. Going to the other side of this wall, the area is discolored and weathered - measuring nine inches across. Seems to support the idea of a burst of hard radiation. The wall itself is made of local stone and measures nearly fourteen inches in thickness. Current radiation count indicates nothing special above background."

Leiber pulled back out into the hallway, followed by DeCamp.

"We're sealing this area off again. We'll have to carefully go in and catalog everything to avoid inadvertantly destroying something."

* * *

Not all the Death Gliders had set down near the community on Refuge.

The problem was that there was not a lot of available land on the planet. Most of it was ocean. At its deepest point was a fault-line canyon that reached three kilometers below sea level. There were large stretches where the sea floor was less than three meters underwater.

One problem caused by this was the weather. Storms were frequent and violent. The settlement was largely protected by mountains on three sides. The few islands and stretches of land not near the encampment were not so well protected.

Life as a Jaffa was harsh, but a Death Glider pilot named D'anna was discovering it could get worse. MUCH worse.

As the storm raged around her, she knew misery that she'd never really experienced prior to this. Winds in excess of one hundred twenty kilometers per hour whipped sheets of water that reduced her visibility to mere feet. The roar of water and wind made hearing useless. Hunkered down in the relative shelter of a set of trees, D'anna had been tough and clever enough to make her own way in the male dominated Jaffa warrior life. That still didn't cut her any slack in the current environment.

She therefore couldn't see the little thing trundling across the grass, it's aerodynamic shape sloughing off the wind. She didn't see it crawl up to her Death Glider. She didn't hear or see it connect with her ship's control systems.

The only thing she knew for certain was that when the storm had finally abated - she was drenched and sore and cold and her Death Glider was gone.

* * *

One of the scouting teams in the mountains had radioed back about an approaching storm, giving the people of Refuge some time to prepare for it. When the clouds had come sweeping in, more than one of the villagers had been grateful for the warning. Lightning was mainly cloud-cloud, and rarer than it might otherwise be. Partly due to the low amount of dust particles in the atmosphere which was itself due to the small amount of land mass on the planet.

It made up for lightning with wind and rain, though much of the storm's fury had abated when it had hit those mountains. Those from Chulak were unused to the gusts of fierce wind that scattered things about. Those from Japan regarded it as a "baby typhoon" and were singularly unimpressed. Those who had gone through hurricanes or tornado weather made sure everything was fastened securely and moved their work indoors. Others stared at nature's fury.

Bonaparte weighed enough and was waterproof enough that the storm was merely inconvenient. His only observation on it was that he was going to hate trying to get the mud off of his treads.

The BOLO merely worked out a translation dictionary for the humans, wondering why it had taken them this long to ask for one. Human pride, perhaps?

Genma swore at the clouds for interrupting the construction of his martial arts training hall.

On most worlds, the Stargate was out in the open just as this one was. As the storm blew sheets of water across the Iris, plans were being made for a Taur'i structure to be built near the DHD which would shield not only the extra electronics, but provide a guard station beyond the tent currently straining at its anchors.

Fortunately someone had thought to warn Earth about being incommunicado as the storm had approached. Which made someone dialing in at the height of the storm and then failing to send an identification signal all the more worrisome.

* * *

Had she been under other circumstances, Minako might have thought that the situation was cool. After all, she had her own room in a secret base, and government officials were thinking of her as a rather important commodity. It was almost like something off of a television show, and had it been on one, she would have been wondering what it would have been like to be that girl.

Instead, she was wondering if there was going to be any way that this could get worse. "Do I _really_ need to be lead around?"

"I would think that you wouldn't want to get lost," Lieutenant Moon replied.

"There is that, but can't I just poke around here, checking it out for myself?"

"No, that would be very bad."

"Why?"

"Other than the fact that they'd get rather mad at you for wandering around a secret installation without an escort or authorization as a member of this place?"

"What can they do?" the blonde muttered, "Keep me as a prisoner?"

"Yes, they can."

"What?"

"A small cell, with only a cot, and maybe a fully visible toilet and sink behind a very heavy metal door could be where you'd be placed. With guards in the halls who are told to shoot you if you attack them."

"Oh..."

"And there are places, like research labs, where, if you stumble in, you'll get yourself hurt, or worse."

"Eeep..."

The military officer shrugged. "Don't worry. So long as you have a guide, you can be certain that you're not going to risk _too_ much. This _is_ a military base, after all."

"Great..."

"But you should like this. I hear that you play volleyball, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, we have a gym of our own. It's not large, but we have top notch equipment. And then to the cafeteria. It might not be much, but there's plenty of variety."

"What? Like frozen foods?"

"No. Like sandwiches, coffee, and plenty of desserts. Somehow, we've got good cheesecake. And they're paying for your upkeep here."

Blinking for a moment, Minako stared at the woman, and then smiled. She was pretty sure that she was going to like her. Though she did have to wonder if there could have been another magical girl the military guys could have bothered.

* * *

There was no fairness in the way monsters attacked, at least by what Sailor Moon had experienced. Every time that she had to deal with a yoma, it was always at a time that was inconvenient. They never came out when she was in class and needed an out. Instead, they showed up when she wanted to do something like visit a friend, or go shopping.

At least the fact that she'd been getting many people cheering her on, including some tourists, did raise her spirits. Of course, right then, she was more than a little put out by the 'monster of the day'. Just the idea of dealing with a monster with long hoses for arms that could literally spank her silly, or whip the fuku from her back was not something that she wanted to think about. Heck, she didn't even want to get near it, though that wasn't quite the problem that she was having, as she couldn't get close enough to do anything.

That was until a rather familiar object pierced the hoses and pinned them to a wall.

"Tuxedo Kamen!" she called out, turning to gaze adoringly up at the man standing on the lightpost where he'd tossed his weapon of choice. "You saved me again!"

"Take heart, Sailor Moon. I am always ready to lend a helping hand," the young man in the rather fancy outfit replied.

"Thank you!"

"You're welcome. And now, let's get rid of this evil creature."

"Right! Moon Tiara... ACTION!"

* * *

Colonel Drake lowered his binoculars and snorted loudly. "A rose. That guy used a _rose_."

"It worked, didn't it?" Captain Flint replied with a small shrug.

"But still... Out of all the things that he _could_ use, he uses a _flower_."

"What? You want to replace all stiletos with bouquets?"

"Of course not, and neither do you," Drake drawled.

"True. But that's not all. I mean, fighting in evening wear is good for the movies, but I'm not about to run out in my dress uniform to my next battle... unless it somehow becomes necessary. Never can be totally sure... Then again, I'm not the goofball he is."

"I know. But it's what we've got to deal with."

"Too bad his little show didn't make much sense..."

"We have to deal with teenaged girls in skimpy outfits who have super powers, and have been fighting energy sucking monsters, and you want 'sense'?"

"Good point," the other man agreed.

* * *

The BOLO recovered the third Death Glider, sliding it into a bay and beginning a dissection of all available systems. The BOLO had been designed to do this, on facing new technologies employed by an enemy - it would dissect and analyze and incorporate anything potentially new or useful.

These Taur'i or humans already had some of this technology available to them and were no doubt working out details even now on their homeworld.

Naquadah and naquadria yielded their secrets quickly to the efficient machine intelligence. Metallurgic samples were put under the molecular microscope and eventually discarded as being along the lines of bear skins - so primitive that they didn't have any value at all.

Meanwhile, the remote micros were on their seek and steal mission. If any were captured or couldn't complete their mission - boom. They were all well away from human habitation and seeking those ships which had landed elsewhere on the planet.

The BOLO backtracked as it realized it had found something very interesting in this ship. Very interesting indeed.

* * *

Tuxedo Kamen slumped where he'd been hit by the yoma of the week.

Sailor Moon _might_ have tried desperately, recovered then, gone on to defeat the enemy, etcetera. An outside observer wouldn't necessarily think this was likely.

_tink tink tink_ went a little metal ovoid. The yoma glanced down at it.

BOOM!

"Don't lose heart, Sailor Moon!"

_!_  
_POOM! POOM!_  
_beep-ping - chiuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!_

As several large individuals in city camouflage and personal body armor started firing assault weapons (also a shotgun and some kind of raygun) at the yoma, Sailor Moon blinked. "Hah?" She'd seen some movies with guys like this but to say this was unexpected was kind of understating the case.

"You can do it, Sailor Moon! Believe in yourself!"

"Hah?" said both the yoma and Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon couldn't remember this happening in those movies. Nope.

_clik clik_ went a large shotgun as it was brought up within five inches of the yoma's face. _BCHOOOM!_

"Uhhhhhhhh," said the yoma of the week, currently missing a few pieces.

"Fall back!" said the lead soldier. "Now Sailor Moon!"

"Right!" agreed the fourteen year old girl. She wasn't just a fourteen year old Magical Girl facing an ancient evil. She was a fourteen year old Magical Girl backed up by heavily armed Marines facing an ancient evil.

Hey, she wasn't so proud she was going to turn down some backup just because they weren't teenage girls.

* * *

"She got it?"

"Yup. Confirmed these are the same kind of bad guys. Normal weapons cause them to regenerate. Energy weapons seem to disrupt whatever they're using to regenerate. Get any readings on this?"

"Yeah, I'm just trying to make sense of it," said Uematsu. "Look - rose boy there threw a rose. Look at that trajectory though. As straight as a sniper rifle shot. It also penetrated the carapace of the 'yoma'."

Smith nodded. "I saw that. Armor piercing roses. It's just that it's so..."

"Yeah," agreed Uematsu. "You know, this could be a form of superstring manipulation. Vibrational patterns?"

"I don't know, I've heard some martial artists could potentially manage this sort of thing," said Smith. "Coffee?"

"Cream and sugar if you don't mind," said Uematsu.

"So what kind of strangeness did your gadgets and gizmos find?" asked Smith as he fixed up the coffee pot.

"Background radiation dropped to as near nothing as far as my instruments could find," said Uematsu. "From the point the yoma showed up until after the fight."

"What about radios?" asked Smith.

"Same thing. Signals damped down to near nothing. Whatever the two are doing is playing hell with the EM bands," said Uematsu. "Rose Boy lowered emissions further. After the fight we see a return to nearly normal levels, so the yoma was the primary culprit in suppressing the fields."

"Magnetic?" asked Smith, pouring coffee.

"If you'd looked at a compass anywhere near the yoma, it wouldn't give you a reading. Whatever those things do they're negating a lot of energy fields. Now here's an interesting spike. This is when Azuma hit it with that 'zat gun.'"

Smith looked over the page. "Whoa."

"Burst of energy across the spectrum," explained Uematsu. "Another occurs when the yoma 'dies' or discorporates. It's a pity we couldn't set up more extensive equipment, but we'd probably have to capture one to do that."

"Until we know for sure how to kill one, let's not open that particular box," said Smith, making a face.

* * *

Minako's room was on Level 15, and she quickly discovered that everyone else on that level shared bunks with other personnel. The restroom and showers were Western-style and communal.

Level 16 was security, and Minako didn't see much of that. Level 17 was apparently something that periodically changed and was a shooting range today. Levels 18 through 20 held laboratories, and Minako was just as glad to skip those. Level 21 was the infirmary, handy to know if she ever got hurt. Level 22 was the mess hall, cafeteria, whatever you wanted to call it. They skipped level 23 as it was a power grid, while level 24 held some little robot gadgets called MALPs and UAVs and other difficult to pronounce words.

Level 25 was another personnel bunks and private rooms level. Other than some guy rushing around trying to find a leak in one of the pipes, it was fairly boring. Level 26 was storage, a few bunks, and the leak. They promptly went up to tell the plumber that he was on the wrong level. Level 27 had a briefing room.

Minako was fairly bored at this point, the only sound she was making at this point was her bubble gum popping as she went along for the ride. Even the fact that her guide at this point was tall and blond and muscular, a Corporal Guile, wasn't that interesting by this point.

"Chevron 6 Engaged," said a loudspeaker as Minako followed her guide into the room.

"Hmmm," said Minako, wondering what that weird thingie was at the end of that ramp.

"This might interest you, Miss Aino," said the Marine, looking amused.

Minako suddenly realized that everyone was looking at her. "Huh?"

"Chevron 7, Engaged," said the same loudspeaker voice.

_FWOOOSH CHOOOOM! ripple_

"Miss Aino? A little less tightly please."

Minako realized she'd leapt up into the guys arms and was clutching his neck. "Oh. Heh heh. My bad. Sorry."

"Incoming wormhole established," said the loudspeaker voice. "Signal received. It's Refuge. Hotaru's right on time."

Minako watched as someone stepped through the rippling curtain of water and stopped at the bottom of the ramp.

"Can I put you down now, Miss Aino?" asked the Marine.

* * *

Wincing slightly, Minako nodded, and had a hard time looking at him as she found her feet touching the floor again. She didn't know which was worse, showing that much surprise, or the likely meaning taken from her leap into his arms. Of course, she couldn't doubt that anyone would be surprised by what she'd just witnessed, she just wished that she could have had some warning.

"Don't worry, Miss Aino," the Marine told her. "Everyone gets surprised by it the first time."

"What _is_?" she asked.

"It's the Stargate, and since you aren't being pulled away in handcuffs, I guess you are supposed to be here," a young sounding voice commented.

The blonde turned to look and saw a girl a little younger than herself stepping from the ramp and heading her way. That was a rather big surprise, since she hadn't expected any of this, but when she'd seen someone walk out of the water, she'd thought that the person would be... older. "Umm... yeah..."

"Minako Aino, meet Hotaru Tomoe. Hotaru, this is Minako," the corporal commented.

"Uhh... nice to meet you..."

"It's nice to meet you too," Hotaru replied, giving her a friendly smile. "You must be new here."

"Well... sort of. They just brought me here recently."

"From Japan?"

"No, England. My Dad's company needed him there, and so we moved. But I am from there."

"Oh, that's great! My Dad worked here for a long time, so I kind of stayed here with him. It wasn't exactly meant for kids, but the people here were really nice to me."

"I suppose... I'm not used to living underground, if you know what I mean," Minako muttered sourly.

"I do. It's so much nicer living above the surface, isn't it?"

"Yeah, and I wish that I could do so at the moment."

"I know, but they might not keep you here all the time. They might even let you go through the Gate to Refuge!"

"'_Through_ the Gate'?"

"Uh-huh!" the younger girl chirped. "This is really an alien transport machine. You put the address for one into another, and some sort of wormhole tunnel thing connects them. You walk through and get to go to other worlds just by taking a step! And there are _thousands_ of them around!"

"'Thousands'?"

"Yes, but the people who made them vanished a long, _long_ time ago. So other races get to use the network system, like us and the Goa'uld," Hotaru said, and let her expression speak about the latter group.

"Are they these 'Go-Auld' really that bad?"

"Worse! They enslave other races and make them worship them as if they were gods! _And_ they invade and take over people's bodies to use as their own."

"They do?!" Minako gasped, somehow unable to deny the girl's words either due to what she'd just seen, or because she seemed to be so... nice and honest. "Sounds like they're monsters."

"Trust me. They _are_. But why are you here?"

"She's like you. She... transforms," Guile answered.

"You do?! You change into that sort of outfit, and get those powers? I didn't realize that there were any others like me around!"

"You... transform?" the elder girl weakly murmured.

Hotaru nodded. I get this outfit to wear that my father isn't too happy about..."

"And magical powers..."

"Exactly!"

"Wow... I thought that it was only my mission..."

"Huh?"

"I'm supposed to be out protecting this planet..."

"Who told you that?"

"My advisor, Artemis. He's the one who gave me the way to use my powers, and tries to tell me what to do, even if he's my... cat... EEEP!" Minako squeaked and slapped her hands over her mouth. "I don't think that I was supposed to just come out and say that!"

"But you did," Guile replied, raising a brow at her.

The blonde just hung her head and whimpered.

* * *

Luna watched the white cat in front of her shiver and frowned. "Is something the matter?"

"I just got this really strange chill," Artemis replied, "But I'm not quite sure why."

"Perhaps it's because we've got people interfering where they shouldn't."

"They were trying to help..."

"They weren't Senshi!"

"They had to be some sort of team out to protect the country."

"That still doesn't change the fact that they weren't Senshi."

"So? What else do you expect the government to do?"

"The government? Where do they come into this?!"

The white moon cat shrugged. "They were using _guns_ in Japan. So they had to get permission to do so without concern."

"They could have been people who didn't care about such things in the first place, and they might have gotten hurt, as they aren't Senshi!"

"Yet, they had weapons that actually seemed to hurt the latest yoma."

"They're still involving themselves in Senshi business, and won't know what they're doing," the black feline grumbled.

"You sound like you don't like this turn of events."

"Of course I don't! They're getting involved in things that only Senshi can handle!"

"They seemed to do pretty good from where I was looking."

"Grr... Why aren't you more concerned about this?"

"I don't know... Maybe it's because they made it easier for Sailor Moon to win?"

That took the wind out of Luna's sails, and she looked rather put out by that fact.

* * *

Minako and Hotaru were standing in the "shooting range", looking down at the constructed targets.

"They look awfully silly," said Hotaru after a few moments.

"These are representations of some of the things found in Japan right now," said one of the technicians a little defensively.

"Uhm," said Hotaru.

"She's right. They are silly looking," said another technician. "Unfortunately Technician Butcher is also right. These are what they look like."

"So explain again what we're supposed to do," said Minako, still nervously.

"Hotaru has transformed several times now," said Technician Butcher. "Unfortunately, she doesn't have your transformation pen and doesn't have any control over her transformations."

"So how do you transform if not with a pen?" asked Minako of Hotaru.

"I just do it somehow," said Hotaru, looking down at the floor.

"Every time she has accessed these abilities, she has apparently been in the middle of an attack by hostile forces," said the other technician. "I'm Technician Glen Cook, by the way. This is Technician Jim Butcher. My specialty is xenoarchaeology, and Jim is in astrophysics. The devices you see around the room are recording and analyzing devices, trying to determine how your device works so that we can help Hotaru transform when she wants to."

"Ah hah," said Minako, seeing the logic but still not too sure about all this. Only one thing to do. "Venus Power, Make UP!"

* * *

_whrrrr - Chum! klick!_

T'kr'vll'gnee startled from his mid-day drowse at an unexpected sound. What had that been, anyway?

_whrrrr - Chum! klick!_

Three of his eyes came to rest on the Ancient Ring. It had shifted position? What was that light there?

_whrrrr - Chum! klick!_

T'kr'vll'gnee sent out an uluation, informing those nearby that something was happening. He shifted position from lying atop the rocks, bringing weight onto his rear and tail so that he could flee if necessary. The Ancient Ring had remained a mute testimony of some unknown civilization for ages untold. Perhaps it was dangerous?

_whrrrr - Chum! klick!_

Others came, curious. With four of the designs lit up in a comforting kubral coloration, it was clear that the Ancient Ring was doing something. There also seemed to be a disorienting shift in the flow of kra't'kk around the Ring.

_whrrrr - Chum! klick!_

Five designs were lit. What did this mean? When none were left unlit, would something happen? Some message from the ancient past perhaps? It was known that the Ancient Ring was not built by themselves, for its materials were unknown and the odd dissonance of the flow of kra't'kk around it was unsettling to say the least.

_whrrrr - Chum! klick!_

Six designs lit. Odd that those parts moved. T'kr'vll'gnee sent a query to the approaching elder - did s/he think that this was dangerous?

_whrrrr - Chum! klick! fwooooooosh SHOOOM!_

Several of those watching kicked off and leapt backwards, raising their manipulators in gestures of shock. WATER?! Liquid water? But no, there was no trace of that offensive if necessary element showing in the air around the Ancient Ring. Not that the substance would last long out in the open anyway. Therefore they were not all in danger of dying from the substance overload.

Closer inspection revealed that the kra't'kk flow was an incredibly complicated pattern around the ring and fiercely brilliant in the "water" glistening to their eyes.

Then, incredibly, an object emerged from the water and moved on wheels away from the Ring. Any spawnling could see that the thing had its own tapestry of patterns of kra't'kk within it, and it was connected by complex strings to the "water." Some strings flitted from the object, while others sped from the Ring to the object.

* * *

Had things progressed normally in this timeline, she would be dead by this point. A young and perky repairer of devices who would have inquired a little too closely and been slain by Apophis' decree. Not even worth a footnote in the way things had developed actually.

Rikku checked her instruments. "The MALP is through. Temperature is reading 115 Celsius. Radiation - high. Air pressure - 450 psi. 6.39 gravities. Atmosphere is heavy in nitrogen, carbon dioxide. Very little oxygen."

"So it is uninhabitable? Pity," said LeGuin. She'd hoped for something more out of the address.

"Uhm, actually, it looks like the inhabitants are trying to get our attention," pointed out Rikku as she stared at the monitors.

"What?" LeGuin stared at the monitors herself before she could formulate a response. "Oh... well, it's definitely not life as we KNEW it."

* * *

Genma looked in satisfaction as his new home was built. If it were possible for the Genma Saotome of a Tendo timeline to look over the plans and this place taking shape, he would have been properly envious.

As it was, Genma knew a level of satisfaction in this and was supervising as best he could while mainly remaining out of the way of the craftsmen themselves. He was not an expert stonemason or carpenter or blacksmith. He possessed no great skills in plumbing, setting up electrical systems, or artistic gifts. After a brief attempt at supervising, he simply showed pictures brought back from the computers available at Cheyenne Mountain of various features and stylings that he thought appropriate.

Then Genma Saotome went back to training the younger set of students in the basics of the martial arts. Sticking with what he knew rather than impede the process of his own dream.

Genma Saotome had learned a small measure of wisdom as a result of the Way Of The Observant Thief.

That didn't mean he didn't check up on it from time to time - often he'd nod and make a pleased noise before heading back to the task he felt he was better suited for.

No small or rickety dojo this. He'd have a grand hall for some of it, a practice yard for the rest. He'd have a dojo that was built to last as long as any Japanese cultural asset had lasted - longer than many of those in fact. It'd also be easier to heat and have a furo that would be the envy of some bathhouses. Though the younger students would make do with cold water. More incentive to make it to the advanced levels.

Tough construction too. It would be able to withstand the elements and at least impede Goa'uld attacks when it was done. It might not be able to withstand the full power of a ha'tak strike force, but it would certainly require more than staff weapons to penetrate its defenses.

The quickly constructed sawmill was using the constantly running streams for power, and producing local wood for construction. Of course that was a temporary measure - the real sawmill would be built later using lumber from the temporary one as well as other resources being put together even now.

There were elements of classical Japanese temples, Tibetan monastaries, and other structures thrown into the mix. Genma saw it taking shape and knew that the basics to make it habitable would be done in a week. Finishing it would take a decade or more though - to elevate it to what he considered a proper headquarters for the Anything Goes style.

Genma was careful to wipe the pleased smile off his face before returning to his students. Couldn't let them think he was soft or anything.

* * *

Cimmeria was a land of the Norse, and it was Early Industrial in some areas, strictly agrarian pre-Renaissance across more of it.

SG-1 had made contact, and then had to go breaking Thor's Hammer that had guarded the Stargate. Contacts had been made just as they had been made in the unaltered timeline.

There were some differences however. Ripples in the timestream, choices that hadn't been available were now being made.

One of these had been some Cimmerians who had seen the SG teams and wanted to see more of this universe they were a part of. That wanted to bring things home that could improve their lives. That wanted to set up their own explorations.

One of whom was huge. Not huge as in obese. Huge as in this guy was bigger than Teal'c, standing 6'8" tall. Muscled in a way that only steroids and serious dedication to bodybuilding would have accomplished if he had been born on Earth. Tough looking in the manner of someone who could weather the elements like a mountain and who had seen battles without number, and triumphed over them all.

His name was Konan, and he was a Cimmerian.

He had started out life as a blacksmith in a mountain village. In time, he'd learned the warrior arts and gone 'a-viking' in order to find new employment and discover what career path would be best for him. He'd been woodsman, hunter, farmer, warrior, weaponsmith, farrier in that time.

What he was good at, what really seemed to fascinate and intrigue him, was exploring. Well, melee combat was perhaps his forte, but it was the exploring that really piqued his interest.

The Tau'ri weapons were dainty little things. These "triggerguards" would have to be removed to accept one of his fingers on the firing mechanism. The staff weapons seemed overly clumsy but acceptable. At least he could manipulate the controls of these devices.

* * *

"You need... remedial classes!" declared the yoma-teacher, making a gesture. "More homework! And more than that - Detention!"

"Aiiieeeeee," shrieked a thoroughly frightened Sailor Moon.

A schoolgirl named Ami reached for her pen.

"Here, miss," said a large fellow coming through the door, quickly reaching her and handing her the little stick.

"What are you doing here? You're too old to be students!" said the yoma-teacher, preparing an attack as several adults entered her classroom.

"Ahem," said one of the figures stepping through the doors. "Where evil beckons, we're there to take it down!"

"For molesting schoolgirls and touching improperly, we be here to hurt you," said a heavily accented other soldier.

"WHAT?!" declared Sailor Moon and Ami together.

"She didn't... did she?" asked Sailor Moon, turning red.

"I DIDN'T!" insisted the flustered teacher-yoma.

"Mercury Power Make UP! For doing things while I was asleep, I... I... can never forgive you!" Ami transformed to Sailor Mercury.

"This situation has gotten completely out of control," observed the yoma. "Class..."

"(She's going for a weapon,)" said the one who didn't speak Japanese and had mangled his opening line. "(Eat hot plasma!)" _SHOOOM!_

"Sailor Moon!" _BLAM!_ "Do not give up!" _bing ping chiuuuuuu!_ "Your cause is right!" _clk-clk CHOOOM!_ "Your aim is true!" _brrrrrrt!_ "So dust the yoma already!"

"RIGHT!" said Sailor Moon, letting fly with her attack.

Sailor Mercury just stared. A lot.

"Sailor Moon!" called out one of the heavily armed and body-armored Marines. "As long as your cause is righteous, know that the forces of justice shall rally behind you!"

"Right!" said a tremendously cheerful Sailor Moon. It was one thing to be fighting ancient evil demonic beings. It was quite another that she had people with really big guns deferring to HER when she was fighting ancient evil demonic beings. It was actually kind of comforting.

"Uhm, excuse me," said Sailor Mercury. "We don't have to pay for the repairs to the classroom do we?"

* * *

"This is all so wrong! Who is that girl? Some kind of yoma?"

"The force is strong in this one."

"Artemis. Knock it off."

"Honestly, Luna, if we're going to find the Princess - then having access to a government database would be awfully handy don't you think?"

Luna stopped. "What?"

"Look, these guys are a mix of armed forces," began Artemis. "This guy here was speaking English and had badly fractured Japanese. According to the badge on his uniform - Misawa Air Force Base. Do you know what else is at Misawa?"

"Guns?" asked Luna, sarcastically.

"The Japanese Self Defense Force," answered Artemis. "I've been reading up on them since the last time. I still don't know where the rayguns fit in - unless these are really really elite forces. Tom Clancy stuff."

"You and your gaijin references," grumbled Luna. "You spent entirely too much time gallavanting around in England."

"Well, technically, we're both 'gaijin'," pointed out Artemis.

Luna settled for biting his tail. Such comments did not deserve a verbal response.

* * *

The Refuge SG teams were to be different from their Cheyenne Mountain equivelants.

The Tau'ri SG teams were one of several categories though any given team was primarily composed of individuals from the military. Covert Ops - surprise and stealth oriented. Diplomatic Ops - develop longterm contact. Engineering Corps - setting up bases and research sites. Exploration - to seek out new worlds and new civilizations. Marine Combat Unit - when something absolutely positively needed to be killed. Medical Unit - when dealing with plagues, civilizations being hit by nasty organisms, or similar "mishaps" needed cleaning up. Scientific Ops - when something needed to be researched over a long period. Search & Destroy - similar to Covert Ops or the Marine Unit, except that the targets were more specific like a single object or enemy.

Refuge was to be civilian and semi-independent. Their missions were unlikely to involve large amounts of firepower. Exploration missions and Diplomacy operations were similar. They didn't have enough engineers or physicians for either to form a specific team, and likewise they lacked Marines or large numbers of scientists.

SG-X was the primary unit. Of course, that meant there had to be a backup unit. Since this was supposed to be the civilian end of things, and these were to be humans allied with the Tau'ri - these were people of Refuge itself going forward to explore on their own. They were therefore Jaffa.

Auron, a fierce older warrior and veteran of many battles. One of Bre'tac's contemporaries.  
Tidus VanBuskirk. College jock turned NAVY Seal, assigned as the Tau'ri representitive.  
Yuna, a former priestess who wanted to be a singer eventually.  
Rikku, the gadget-wielding engineer among the set.  
Lulu, the Jaffa priestess turned lore specialist.  
Wakka, the jock turned warrior.

SG-X2 had a somewhat different mission objective. They'd use the Stargate until the point when they could accumulate resources and then utilize those resources to purchase a teltac transport ship. From that, they would then have a means of transport and exploration not dependent on the Stargate. They could even explore their own planetary system - looking for available resources not present on Refuge itself.

Naturally, everyone was hoping they'd find naquadria. There were asteroids in the system, and that was the most likely place to find such resources.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

Yes, me and Kender wrote these over at the AA. We started this story back in 2004 in fact.

No, i certainly do not do recreational drugs, nor do I condone their use.

Yes, as a matter of fact, I DID write a few stories under another pen name. However i'm trying to put most of that behind me. Mostly.

No, i certainly didn't get any of this from anyone else's story.

Yes, i'm posting this to to try and cure a writer's block.


	8. Chapter 8: Venus and Saturn

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_SciDISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Also note that some text in the original came in different colors, but doesn't support that function as far as i can tell.

Chapter 8: Venus and Saturn

* * *

Hotaru looked around the room that Minako had been given and tried to figure out what to make of it. Having grown up around scientists and their military guards ever since her father had joined up with the Stargate project, she had never really gotten into what a lot of girls her age were used to. Then again, she'd always been a bit shy, and most of her contact with her gender was with women who were at least in their twenties. So, she was a little protected in her upbringing, and not used to having someone around her age to get to know.

"I thought that we were going to be doing something important?" she asked.

Placing the cans of soda that she'd been holding onto a table, Minako grinned back at the younger girl. "Sure, we are. I figure that this is the important part for us."

"It is?"

"Why do you think that I wanted us to hang out in my room?"

"Oh. Well, I did want to know... how do you get that 'transformation pen'? I kind of never got one, and it'd be nice to be able to..."

"'Transform when you want to'?" the blonde said helpfully.

"Ummm... Yeah."

"Well, to call it to me, I just really concentrate on it, like I told you. It's sort of like... just really wanting it, truly. And then I go from there."

"Oh..."

"I'm not making sense, am I?"

The violet eyed girl blushed. "You're trying, and I really appreciate that."

"You're welcome. I'm sorry that I can't really be complete on it all, but I kind of got it from my..."

"Cat?"

"Yeah, him," the older girl replied, and sighed. "He's going to yell at me, I just know it. But he did give me my compact, and then my transformation pen. Now, he could have yours, but if you're doing it all by yourself, maybe you if you can just do it yourself... It's like the blind leading the dumb."

"Uhh... okay..."

"But that's not why I asked you to come here."

"It's not?"

"Nope, it's not. I figured that we're sisters in harms, and that we are two pretty girls pulled into all sorts of wierd trash. And since I'm supposed to be helping you with your powers, that makes me the 'big sister'. Part of that is to help you learn what's important to a girl like us."

"It is?"

"Yup. And the way that I figure, you've got a lot to learn."

"In what?"

"In the _really_ important things that a girl should know!" Minako chirped, and pulled out a series of videos, cds and magazines. "You have to have fun too, and all that training junk's been tough. So, now it's time for us to lay back and roll on the good times. I've got movies, games, and plenty of other stuff to enjoy. And I aim to show you something no girl should not know about. Boy idols!"

"Boy... idols..."

"Uh-huh! Some of them can be so cute!"

"But, I... umm..."

"What is it?"

"I sort of... already know a nice guy. I'd think that he's good looking..." Hotaru murmured, staring down at her hands as her face heated with a deep blush.

"Oooh... Tell me more..."

"Huh?"

"It's obvious that you have a crush! What makes him so special?"

"I... don't..."

"You're blushing! Tell me about him! C'mon!" the elder girl commented excitedly.

"His name's Ranma... He sort of... I've known him ever since we were little, and he's played with and protected me for all that time. He even helped save me when I was in a lot of trouble..."

"Damn it..."

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No, you didn't. It's just... The good guys are always taken," Minako grumped, crossing her arms over her chest as she pouted.

"I'm sorry..."

"It isn't your fault. Maybe he'll know someone who I can get with. In the mean time, tell me about him."

"You don't want to date him..."

"_You_ do, and it sounds like you haven't really gotten a chance to get with him. So, that makes it a job for the warrior of the planet of Love! All we have to do is to come up with a plan, and he'll be yours!"

"You want to help me..."

"Of course. Friends stick together, and help each other out, right? Popcorn?"

Hesitantly putting her hand out to take some of the snack from the offered bowl, Hotaru gave a shy smile to the blonde, and found herself rather excited by the unadulterated friendship that the other girl was offering.

* * *

"Congratulations on your mission, Major," General Hammond said as he shook the hand of the man who'd just come into his office.

Paul Davis nodded back at the older man, but then gave a little shrug. "I did get her to come to the States, but beyond that, I don't think that I did much in the mission."

"You were to get her to come here if it was possible, and Miss Aino is proving to be a most helpful guest, even if she does tend to moon over some of the men in the base staff."

"It just that I don't think that I'm one of her favorite people at the moment. Our first encounter was not... without stress."

"You seemed to have gotten past that."

"A lot of it was her parents, but once she realized that we were not about to march her around, or shoot her if she didn't go with us, she relaxed a whole lot more."

"It's helped that we've tried to make her stay here comfortable. But she is proving to be an asset," the bald man replied.

"Then let's hope that your newest transfer will be one as well."

"'Newest transfer'?"

"There has been some discussion about including Japanese Self Defense Force officers in Stargate Command, since we have been... bringing their nationals into our program, and they have been helping us in our efforts regarding the 'Sailors' in Tokyo."

"I've heard about it. So, what's happened?"

"We... aren't sure," Davis admitted.

"Excuse me?"

"You see, there were supposed to be some movements on their end, for if we could come to some agreement. And we were supposed to set up possible covers for the 'exchange officer' if things went that way. But somehow, someone did something, and it sort of created a rather unique situation."

"And that is?"

"Nobody really authorized the start of the process, and we can't figure out the mess of the paper work that went into it enough to do much about it. But we can't stop it either way, so now you'll be getting a new member of your command."

Hammond took the file that he was offered with a raised brow, but slowly relaxed once he read what was in it. "Hmmm... This is interesting."

"Sir?"

"I do believe that this won't be so bad..."

"You know this person?"

"Something like that."

"Oh... okay..." the major replied, clearly confused, but not about to contemplate pressing a superior officer for an answer.

Though the strange thoughtful look on the other man's face was not one made to get rid of curiosity completely.

* * *

Usagi was rather happy with the way that things were turning out for her. Being a Senshi was great with the help from the guys with the really big guns, and she was now able to get through a fight without taking too much time, or too many blows. Then there was the added bonus of having Ami as a friend and a fellow Senshi, so they could have fun and not have to worry about keeping the secret. And now it looked like she'd be getting a chance to make another friend.

"Class, today we will be getting a new student who will be attending class from now on," Miss Haruna announced, and turned to the teen standing next to her. "Please introduce yourself to the class."

The new student nodded, and seemed to look right through her before saying "I am Sergeant Sosuke Sagura, reporting as ordered."

"'Sergeant?'" asked one of the boys.

Sosuke frowned and dropped the salute. "Uhm. Nevermind. That was... an old nickname."

"Oh, military otaku, eh?" asked one of the other boys.

Ami nodded at her desk thinking that was about as likely as the Three O'Clock Faery showing up and handing out sweets.

* * *

"The Tau'ri SG teams are teams of four," said C'id. "SG-X2 has a different profile and larger number of operatives. SG-V will be our combat team. Leona and Al will be transferred there, as well as some of our more combat-oriented individuals as they are recruited."

Leona held up a hand. "What equipment will I have in this new group?"

"Upon deployment, large caliber weapons of whatever kind we can scrounge or supply," answered C'id.

"Yesssssssss," said Leona, pumping a hand and grinning.

"Per the agreement reached with General Hammond, you'll be part of the Tau'ri representation," continued C'id. "Refuge is independent of the Tau'ri but affiliated with them, so we're taking our lead from them - but their restrictions aren't the same as ours."

"We've installed some of the Death Glider cannon as implaced weapons for example," said LeGuin from her position at the table. "So we'll be able to leave the iris open for extended periods as we uprate the defenses around the Stargate."

"We can't afford to cut ourselves off from the Tau'ri entirely, nor can we become dependent on them," summed up C'id. "Now we also have to balance out our mission objectives."

"What mission objectives?" asked Rikku.

"Rikku, you and SG-X2 will be going on the mission we've planned out. Your team will travel across the worlds and attempt to purchase or obtain through legal means - a teltac style transport ship." C'id got a gleam in his eyes as he considered what it might be like to build factories producing such craft after they could properly study one. Maybe designing his own ships!

"SG-V will be on standby whenever we have teams in the field," said LeGuin. "If we need heavy assault or search & rescue or a surgical strike - that's your job."

"I love my job!" said Leona, lost in dreams of big guns.

LeGuin checked her notes. "Some of our forces will be rotated Earthside for additional training, that includes Konan and the other Cimmerians there. They have the best training on firearms available there."

Konan nodded but otherwise didn't say anything, his icy blue eyes betraying nothing of what he might have thought about this.

"Technological division and research will be headed by Professor Tomoe's team," added C'id.

"Booyeah!" quoted Professor Tomoe, wearing his "Mad Scientist's Local Union #349" shirt.

"Ahh, yeah," said LeGuin, checking her notes. "SG-X is the primary exploration team. X-2 is acquisition. V is our combat force."

"Does this mean 'Sailor V' will be joining SG-V?" asked Al.

"Not at present, yet we're keeping the option open," said LeGuin. "SG-S is the designation for Tomoe's scientific team."

"I still want to be 'Q Division'," complained Professor Tomoe.

"Overruled," said LeGuin with a tired tone of voice that indicated she'd tired of this particular subject quite some time ago. "We have plans for other teams but at present no one to fill out these slots."

"SG-Double O?" asked Professor Tomoe hopefully.

"No, Professor," said LeGuin, looking as if she was getting a headache.

Bonaparte's turret swiveled around. By the way, where is Hotaru anyway?

* * *

If Minako's eyes had gotten any larger, they would have popped out of her head. "He said that?! Kiyaaaaaaa."

Hotaru nodded, blushing and eyes focussed downward.

Minako held up one of the pictures. "Pity they didn't let you keep it."

"Eh?" asked Hotaru.

"The jewelry," said Minako, indicating the pictures.

"Ah," agreed Hotaru.

* * *

"JSDF?" asked Ami as she sat down next to the boy. "Huh?" Usagi looked lost.

"No, ma'am," said Sosuke. "Not quite as... public."

"Ah," said Ami, understanding.

"Eh?" said Usagi, not so understanding.

"So what's your story? I assume you already know mine," said Ami.

"Ami Mizuno. Parents separated, living with your mother. Kumori Mizuno, a pediatrician who works at Juuban General Hospital. Favorite food: sandwiches. You have a dislike of yellowtail tuna-"

Ami held her hand up to signal that was enough.

"Yes ma'am," said Sosuke. "Sosuke Sagura. Orphaned. Raised mainly by mercenaries hired from one port of call to another over the past ten years. Mainly across Europe and the Middle East. Familiar with a number of hand-to-hand and combat styles."

"You're our... watchdog?" asked Ami.

"No ma'am," answered Sosuke. "At least if you mean the sense that I am watching you. I am here to make safeguard your lives during school hours and signal for backup should the need arise."

"Eh?" repeated Usagi.

"Does she do that a lot?" asked Sosuke.

"I guess," confessed Ami.

* * *

"-which brings us to the latest update from Refuge," said Samantha Carter. "They've got a picture of the natives of... oh."

"They aren't exactly human, or even humanoid," said Daniel Jackson.

"They're silicon based, or so the scientists think," said Samantha. "They'd die from the cold at what we consider room temperature. Two legs, a tail, forelimbs, and those tentacles around that mouth kind of thing are their manipulatory limbs. Primitive society."

"Sounds like my first apartment," said Jack, looking over the reports on environment.

"While interesting, do we have anything we can offer them? Do they have anything we want?" asked Daniel Jackson. "I mean, under these conditions, most of our equipment isn't going to last that long."

"Well, at least they're friendly," said Jack. "I'd love to see a snake try to get one of these guys."

"Internal pressure would crush them, or their body temperatures would literally cook a Goa'uld," pointed out Samantha Carter. "That's providing one could penetrate a skin that's more like rock than ours."

Jack gave her a flat look. "That's my point."

"Oh," said Samantha, getting the point at this point.

Teal'c seemed to be looking off in the distance and was smiling faintly.

"We're running out of time for this meeting," noted General Hammond. "I've got one last order of business. Tomorrow morning we get a member of the JSDF here."

"The Japanese Self Defense Force? What happened to 'Top Secret'? 'Classified'? Hello?" asked Jack.

"Well, as to that, the Japanese authorities, are working with us on a matter that they might well have classified and swept under the rug themselves," said the General.

* * *

Luna was not the sort of cat that she liked to appear as, and that did not have to do with acting like a cat when she was around 'normal' people. She actually did care about others, and would prefer that her charges get every advantage that they could. But she was also concerned about other things, and had a strict sense of what should and shouldn't be.

And in her estimation, Artemis should _not_ be waxing poetic about the benefits of having heavy artillery on one's side.

"What's so great about it?" she grumbled.

"Just think of it!" Artemis insisted. "We'd be able to get weapons that would make big hits where the bad guys are."

"And cause lots of pointless damage in the process. Which is yet another reason for not being able to even consider military help."

"Why not? Just having back up makes it easier for the girls."

"We can't always be sure of that."

"What about the possibility of having immediate medical care from people used to battle wounds?"

"I'll remember that the next time Usagi gets tentacle burn."

"Ewww... Sounds nasty."

The black cat sighed. "Around her wrists and ankles. _Not_ anywhere else. Pervert."

"It was you who said it. And maybe they'd be better off with having people who could give us a place to train them?"

"In what? The last time that I checked, 'magic' did not show up on any military supply list."

"What about permission and excuses for when the girls need it? I'm sure that they can find people to help with getting them out of those situations."

"You do realize that you're only guessing what you think they _might_ be able to give us."

"And I do have to wonder if you've been able to hit the litter box lately..." he muttered, and then yowled.

"Idiot."

* * *

When Beryl saw Jadeite appear before her, she scowled at the sight of him rubbing at one ear. "Why are you doing that?"

"Eh? Did you say something my Queen?!"

"I asked for an explanation for your actions!"

"A 'discussion of fractions'?!"

"Grrr... Tell me why are you doing this?!"

"How can I 'tool bliss'?!"

"CAN YOU NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT I AM SAYING?!" she screeched.

"What was that?" he replied. "I apologize, my Queen. I can't hear what you are saying clearly. Some human fool threw a stun grenade near to where I was watching the last fight, and my hearing has not improved.

The evil monarch wondered if she should just zap him right then and there.

* * *

As Naru turned the corner, she spotted a boy waiting near the girl's room. She watched for a moment, certain that there was something up, and wondered if she should try to defend her gender's safety in the building. But when she recognized the figure, and saw a familiar face exiting the restroom, she was certain that she knew what was going on.

"Sosuke Sagara!" she called out, and raced over to the pair she'd spotted.

"Yes, Miss Osaka?" the 'transfer student' replied. "Is there an emergency?"

"No, not really."

"Then is there a matter of concern? Your voice sounded urgent."

"For me, it is. You were waiting for Ami-chan here."

"That is affirmative."

Naru waved that off and smiled. "Why were you doing it?"

"Because it is my duty, and I have to stay close to her during the day."

"You do? Don't you want to do anything else?"

"No."

"And I'll bet that you knew that he was waiting here. Didn't you?" Naru murmured as she turned to face the other girl."

"Yes, well... I did...." Ami admitted. "I couldn't do otherwise."

"I see..."

"What do you mean?"

"Are you planning on letting him stay around you?"

"That was what I thought."

"HA! I've got to news before Umino!"

"Hmmm?"

"I wouldn't have believed it without seeing it with my own eyes. You two are a couple!"

"What?! No! We're just.... He is.... I am...." the cram school student stammered.

"Don't worry. A pretty girl like you deserves a boyfriend. Oh, the romance!"

Ami blushed furiously and wondered how she could correct this, and hoped that the mistaken concept could be kept from the school at large.

For his part, Sosuke just put it up as another example of why he would not be understanding schoolgirls anytime soon.

* * *

"Wow.... These hulks are pretty big...." Ranma commented as he watched the video of the MALP as it wheeled along the latest world that had been chosen to go to.

Shion frowned at the image. "It looks like factory space. You can see some similarities with what we have."

"But they don't look real invitin'."

"That's becacuse they don't have any real work going on. Perhaps only the most basic power was left on, but we can't even be sure of that. Not a single light is on, and I can't even see the signs of a plant at work."

"And that means...."

"This place seems to have been abandoned. And by the look of it, that happened a really long time ago," the scientist replied, as they looked at the planet that had things that most definitely twinged their interest.

* * *

The first drones the BOLO had used were small things, remotes meant to blend into the background and observe then feed their data to the BOLO by making a wireless connect. Originally meant as the equivelant of forward observers, they had become spies after the BOLO had awakened and discovered that the Enemy had already struck.

Other remotes had been built since then. The units that went out and took over the various Death Gliders were a little more sophisticated and a little less sneaky. Still not a true AI, though they could function independently for an extended period.

Having gotten ahold of several of those gliders, it tsked to itself about the recall device hidden away. So little trust in the universe. Judging from the message, it wasn't that difficult to see some worry about his own troops defecting away from his cause.

Naturally the data involved meant upgrading some systems. Since there was some debris fields in orbit, having the means to collect more data and whatever surviving tech remained became a possibility to consider.

* * *

**P3X-774**:  
"Okay, the pressure's on. What wonders of the universe await our intrepid explorers," said Jack O'Neil as he stepped off the staircase and into the grass, "in this latest corner of the universe?"

"Sir, there's not that much pressure," pointed out Captain Carter.

"Yes there is, my dear Captain," argued Jack, eyes scanning the brush. "We've got that whole competition thing going. We don't have tanks or girls in cheerleader outfits but we'll manage."

"Maybe we could acquire a 'cheerleader outfit' for Captain Carter," said Teal'c.

"Oh yeah, like I'm going to parade around alien jungles in something that looks like a figure skating outfit," said Captain Carter, ignoring the sudden speculative look from a couple of other teammates.

"Well, it's better than trying to imagine Teal'c in one," said Jack with a shrug.

"Gak," said Daniel, his imagination going there.

"Urk," said Samantha Carter, her imagination also going there.

Teal'c raised an eyebrow and frowned ever so slightly. "I do not believe your concept would work. So far all of those with this transformation ability we have observed have been female."

"There's this Tuxedo Kamen in Japan, he apparently shows up wearing formal dining wear to the fights, throws roses," said Daniel. He eyed Teal'c, trying to picture the large fellow in a tuxedo.

Sam got a distant smile on her face, picturing Jack in a tuxedo.

Jack stared at Daniel. "He throws 'roses'?"

"Pinpoint accuracy and somehow he imbues them with an armor piercing quality," said Daniel, shrugging. "I don't explain the reports, I just translate the parts that are in Japanese."

"Getting back to the mission," said Jack. "Konan, you've got the most experience in tracking and hunting in this sort of environment. See if you can find some sign of this... what was the name again."

"They call it a 'fenri' - no relation to Fenris wolf," said Daniel.

Konan nodded. He was not so talkative as these Tau'ri, but his mother had always told him only to speak when he had something useful to say. Hunting a creature that could turn invisible? A challenge. Yet even if it were invisible it would leave traces, would it not?

"There," said Teal'c.

Konan looked up in time to see a glimpse of some huge insectile beast vanish. He grunted and smiled. It not only turned invisible, it flew? This would be a challenge indeed. Hmmmm. "We are being observed."

SG-1 immediately went on defensive, backs to the center and scanning the trees.

"You're sure?" asked Jack.

"I would not have spoken were I not," said Konan. "They retreat. My detecting of them apparently is of concern."

"So there may be a lot of these 'fenri' bugs?" asked Jack.

"The ability to turn invisible would be a significant evolutionary advantage," pointed out Sam. "Not a chameleon like color shift because they move too quickly for something like that."

Konan dropped to squat on the ground, snarling a moment later. "Ettin were here. Half hour ago."

"What?!" Jack dropped the perimeter guard to see what the big barbarian type had found. Scuffed dirt and depressed grass? Oh, there was a footprint. "I keep reminding you. They're Goa'uld, not ettin. You get all that from this little bit?"

Konan shifted around and began checking the ground nearby. An ettin was an ettin. "Six. Male. Two carry nets."

"What?" asked Jack, trying to figure out what this guy was looking at.

Daniel scratched his head. "Are you sure?"

Konan merely looked at the little archaeologist. "This is my field."

"Right," said Daniel, remembering something. The Cimmerians were Norse-descent and culture. They were of a more primitive, therefore less civilized, culture. Beneath that thin veneer of civilization there lurked a barbarian. Best not to antagonize one needlessly.

* * *

A Marine sat back and contemplated the ceiling. "Add 'Why is Saturn more powerful than Mercury or Venus?' to the list."

"The list is getting pretty long," said the other Marine. "Maybe - size of the planet?"

"If that's so, Sailor Sol or Sailor Jupiter ought to be really powerful," said the first Marine. "If there are constellations then those would be even stronger."

"So Tuxboy would be an asteroid or something?" speculated the second Marine.

"Those mooncats seem to think there are other Senshi out there, but they're wrong about other things so maybe they're wrong about this," said the first Marine. "Maybe there aren't any others."

"I don't know," said the second Marine. "I also don't get this bit with their powers and names. Why does the hottest hunk of rock in the system have a cold fog attack? Why does the Moon get a magic frizbee attack? Why does Saturn - dealing with time - have a 'Silence' attack and why does it look like purple lightning? What's with Venus and a 'Crescent Beam'?"

"That's already question number six," pointed out the first Marine. "Their names and the little symbols of three of them are from European astrology but their powers have nothing to do with that source material."

"We're up to twenty-five 'Doesn't Make Sense' questions," said the second Marine. "Now if we just had a way to get some answers."

* * *

"Jedite! I have been observing your difficulties in dealing with these 'Senshi.'"

"It ain't my fault!"

Beryl paused. "I also think that odd energy weapon has had some residual effects."

"Yah think?" agreed Jedite, shortly before he fell over. The interesting thing was the little arc of smoke still hanging in the air marking his passage.

"It is obvious Jedite is not up to the challenge."

"Be that as it may, Zoicite." Beryl fixed the Dark General with her amber eyes. "Do you think you can do better?"

"Of course," said Zoicite. "All that is needed is to seperate this 'Sailor Moon' from her support, and I have a plan on how to do that. Leave it to me."

"Fine." Beryl's eyes went to a Dark Private. "You. Nickel Cadmium. See what you can do about the smell of burnt General in here."

"Yes, my Queen," said the minor soldier, dragging Jedite off.

* * *

The Bureau was the simplest thing to call it. It was the local equivelant of MI6 or the CIA or whatever one wanted to call it. In a world where magical beasts, vampiric beings, ghosts, and other "paranormal" entities lurked - some of the duties of such agencies were not what one might typically encounter outside such a world.

Had the timeline remained inviolate, Ranma would have faced ancient Chinese curses, ghost cats, ghosts of people, bean hurling plants, and so on and so forth. Hotaru would have been possessed by an demonic essence fragment named Mistress 9. Yoma appearing in Tokyo's Juuban district(the tenth of over twenty districts) would have faced a number of teenage girls who would destroy them with heart and courage and luck.

Yet what of other districts and other cities and other nations? Were they simply defenseless and pillaged by the forces of darkness at will? Or were other forces at work?

"Here's the specs on the zat'nik'tel."

"There were three breakouts in Shinjuku. One in Akihabara."

"Akihabara?"

"It took us five hours before we could find it."

"Figures. What was this one?"

"Called itself 'Cubic Zirconium' - was caught playing a hentai PC game. We were able to dispel it through the simple measure of buying it a copy to take home."

"I know, but it was a pretty pathetic entity. Barely registered a 1.4 on the scale."

"Well, it did manifest in Akihabara. I'd hardly expect a demonic lord with a value over ten to bother."

"Unless it was an otaku demonic lord."

"You've been spending way too much time over there."

"Hmmm. We can't mass produce these... what do you call them again?"

"Actually I call them 'zat guns'. No, they use a rare material for power and mechanisms we can't currently produce."

"'Zat gun'?"

"Americanism."

"Ah, that explains it. What about this 'Mamoru Chiba'?"

"The roses appear to have something in common with the 'Iron Cloth' technique, chi infused to have a greater impact. We're suggesting a contact with him and the possibility of using a spiritual charge on bullets is something to consider."

"May have to use wood or some other organic material then."

"We're looking into it."

* * *

"Looks like some sections of Philadelphia, or maybe Seattle," said Shion, gazing across the sprawl.

"I was think like some Tokyo, maybe Yokohama," said Ranma.

"Want to be with your girlfriend, eh?" asked Shion, glancing over at the martial artist.

"Not girlfriend. Is not correct word. Don't know correct one in English," said Ranma.

"Sounds like we're far enough away from the Stargate or there's no translation effect here," said Shion.

"Is so. (You don't speak any Japanese, do you?)" Ranma shifted uncomfortably.

"(Some,)" said Shion. "(I speak some Japanese I picked up over the years, same with Korean. My brother got into kendo and kenjutsu - Japanese martial arts styles, combined it with native Korean styles. Mostly I learned Japanese translating some technical manuals into English.)"

"(Manuals?)" asked Ranma.

"(Old motorcycle I restored and rebuilt. Ended up selling it to help pay for college.)" Shion pointed. "(See those long buildings there? They're almost like aircraft hangars.)"

"(Any idea why this world was abandoned?)" asked Ranma.

"(None. Biologically this world is clean. The rain is slightly acidic but not as bad as you get from countries with operating coal power plants. The fact that there's this constant drizzle shifting to light rain without any shift in the weather is more concerning. Plant life isn't going to survive for long under these conditions.)"

Bonaparte continued sweeping outward, looking for any signs of activity. He was briefly visible at the intersection of an avenue before rolling along.

Shion switched on her walkie-talkie. "Bonaparte, don't go so far afield. What if there are mines or something?"

"*Actually I have detected and removed eighteen such devices, which appear to utilize bursts of hard radiation that would kill a human. It's best if I keep going like this.*"

Shion stopped and motioned Ranma to stop. "You're sure of that?"

"*Not exactly something I'd mistake. Eighteen radiation mines. Oooh. This one fires poisoned flechettes. Spectrographic analysis reveals a neurotoxin similar to curare.*"

"Why didn't the MALP find these?" asked Shion, having come to a complete stop and eyeing the boulevards more uncertainly.

"*THAT toy? These are concealed and it looks like the trigger is set for some kind of energy detection. Not sure what though. No exact match in my specs. Probably biological or maybe that naquadah stuff.*"

Ranma pondered briefly then raised his ki. "HA!"

A faint mist seemed to gather in his hands.

"(What is THAT?)" asked Shion.

"(Pop's teaching me chi projection,)" said Ranma through gritted teeth. "(Not really good at it yet.)"

Shion watched as Ranma sent the mist like some large soap bubble towards one of the doorways.

_PANG! thukitta-thukitaa-taukittta_

Ranma gasped and wheezed. Shion stared at the little quills bristling from the doorway.

"(They're bombs set to look for chi, that's why there's nothing alive here,)" said Ranma as he tried to regain his breath.

"('Chi' as in life force)?" asked Shion, still surprised to see evidence of something so bizarre.

Ranma nodded.

"(That would explain why Bonaparte isn't triggering the mines, he's an Artificial Intelligence and 'chi' is biological,)" mused Shion.

"(Way Of The Observant Thief teaches to look for patterns of chi, Bonaparte has chi but it is-)" Ranma had to search for an appropriate word. "(Like the chi flows in rock and plants, not like the chi in animals and people.)"

"I'm going to have to ask Captain Carter if she's considered vibrational patterns along superstrings," said Shion, jotting something down in a notebook she kept for just such purposes.

"(Eh?)"

"(Whatever the case, this lowers our chances to explore this world until we've done more work with demolitions disposal.)"

"*Oh this is interesting. Motion sensor using some sort of blade trap, no damage to me though. Most of these traps aren't even vaguely functional anymore. Pathetic workmanship.*" Bonaparte actually sounded a little smug.

"Keep going, I'll send a report back to Refuge that we could use the help of the US military personnel on this one. People with experience in this sort of thing." Shion let out a deep breath as the drizzle ran off of her poncho. "This isn't a factory city after all. It's a warzone that was booby-trapped."

* * *

The systems that had run the factory city had once been marvels of engineering, and part of the pride of the people who had built them. With the multitasking and advanced technologies available to the computers, they were able to control various devices so that they could do it all. From the assembly lines of production, to security equipment, to environmental controls, those systems could do it all. In fact, they only needed people around to input commands, and to watch over what was happening.

And then the war came. Commands were put in, and were marked to be of vital importance. Military forces, plant management, and government officials had all worked to put in what they thought would be necessary. Unfortunately, things had not gone as had been hoped, as things were now very different than the days when those systems were the glories of their makers' design.

Now it was a minefield surrounding buildings which had been programmed to defend the planet's interests at all costs.

*AREA INTRUSION DETECTED*  
First detection occurrence: Grid 001-003  
Current Estimated Threat Level: High  
Recommended Course Of Action: Immediate Elimination Of Intruders  
Chosen Course Of Action: Immediate Elimination Of Intruders

***ERROR***  
Chosen directive impossible.  
Current State of repair precludes heavy assault  
Contol and communication with one unit possible

Second Chosen Course: Activate single unit and proceed with elimination of intruders at best possible speed.  
Activate repair units as soon as possible.

Even with the fact that with so many continuing maintenance problems over the centuries, the systems were not about to give up on their assigned task, no matter how many problems showed up, or how many people had to be killed.

* * *

Usagi wasn't quite sure what she should do about having her guard following her so much, but at least he wasn't a bad sort. He was cute in a rough... emotionless... militaristic way, and was honest, dedicated, and loyal. She didn't mind having him around so much as _noticing_ him being around. It was one thing to know that he was supposed to be her bodyguard of sorts, yet it was another to be spotting that same boy watching her going into and out of dressing rooms in stores.

But at least he wasn't too annoying and didn't try to bother her.

"Hi, dumpling head!"

Then again, she had that jerk Mamoru for that. "Ohhhh!"

"Come on now. Is that any way to be polite?" Mamoru asked... just before he gave a grunt of pain.

That was due to the fact that Sosuke had just rammed his fist into the guy's stomach. Doing so sent a whole lot of hot air bursting out of the college student, and made him defenseless as the combat trained boy flipped him into a pile of garbage.

"Huh? Why'd you do that?" she asked.

Sosuke looked back at her with at even stare that he seemed unable to give up. "He appeared in a suspicious manner, and seemed ready to attack you."

"Yeah... With his mouth."

"What do you mean?"

"He's just a jerk. I know him, and he'd just bother me... a lot."

"Then I was wrong to deal with him in that manner?"

"Ummmm... let me get back to you on that one."

"Understood."

* * *

There were a lot of things that Minako was ready to take on faith. After all, she was a magical girl who'd been given her powers by a talking cat, and was being kept around by a secret American military program. She'd learned that not only were there monsters that would suck the life out of people, but that there were nasty aliens that would steal people's bodies.

Yet, she was still not sure that she wanted to try to walk through the Gate. "Are you sure about this?"

"Of course I am. I've gone through before, remember?" Hotaru said helpfully.

"Yeah, I remember. But this thing could still break."

"Dad says that the same thing could happen with a plane or a car."

"A car wouldn't turn you into beef jerky. I saw the first Star Trek movie..."

"And..."

"The guy was in the translator thingie and got turned into... eww...."

The younger girl frowned. "I don't think that Dad would send me through if he thought that would happen."

"It still could. Why am I going anyway?"

"So I can show you where I stay. Sort of like how we hung out in your room. Though, if you don't want to see it..."

"No! I want to see it! Really. It's just.... Oh well, let's just do it."

"Okay!"

The two of them traded a smile, and stepped through the active Stargate.

* * *

First had been the copies of indigenous lifeforms, remote units that relayed information back to the BOLO to act as remote sensors or forward observers at need. Second had been the units dubbed "peebos" which could blow up upon reaching a target, or take command of machines which had been recovered - specifically built to hijack Death Gliders.

The BOLO itself could not fit through a Stargate, and the amount of resources required to give itself antigrav capabilities was currently beyond its grasp. That meant units like Bonaparte.

One little comment, one little slip from a negotiator, and BOLO had assigned a higher priority to working with the Tau'ri. (The BOLO prefered this term to "Earthers" or "Earthlings" as both terms seemed to indicate a lack of adherence to regular body cleansing, to its own sensibilities at least.)

The Tau'ri, it appeared, were fighting a second enemy on their homeworld. That enemy could be the Enemy that had wiped out the BOLO's creators. This needed to be researched, and in order to research that it would be necessary to field something that was like Bonaparte in that it could operate independently and could fit through a Stargate.

Designs currently assembled on its displays as it considered which approach would be best. Something that could accompany these "Tau'ri."

A new ablative armor, which could disperse a higher amount of plasma weapons fire than their existing kevlar inserts, had been traded for access to cultural data and assets. A DVD player had been worked out and a database of the cultures and capabilities and icons of the Tau'ri was being accumulated. From these cultural references - the "third" series was being developed.

The first design was that of a "wheaten Scottish terrier", though the "Alsatian" design had a certain appeal as well. The unit designate "K-9" had a great deal of appeal to the BOLO, though the pseudoflesh would be the tricky part to work out and difficult to maintain.

The second design was of these "Terminator" units. While skeletal and not likely to mingle in populations, the basic humanoid frame was simple enough for mass production somewhere down the line. The Tau'ri military was considered likely to view the design as sufficiently intimidating to be attractive.

The third design being considered was a retooling of the Death Glider. A one man vehicle that could be flown through a Stargate. From what the BOLO had been able to tell of the Tau'ri Stargate, it would have to be disassembled and then reassembled at the other end.

The BOLO considered, and then decided.

* * *

The crater wasn't visible until you were right on it, reminding Shion of a box of icecream where someone had taken a warm scoop and just dug into it.

"(Residential area,)" said Ranma, eyeing the buildings on the edge.

"(Whoever attacked was targetting this area,)" pointed out Shion, "(leaving the industrial areas untouched and going after the population centers.)"

Bonaparte's turret moved as he looked over the smooth curve of the crater. Then he moved his turret just a little more. #Whoa. Dig the legs on that kid!#

Shion blinked as the ground shook.

Ranma looked at Shion. Shion looked at Ranma. Both slowly turned.

On ponderous legs, the skyscraper sized crab-tank moved slowly towards them.

* * *

Minako had held her breath the moment she hit the "water" and continued that way, stumbling forward on the other side.

"You can open your eyes now," said Hotaru's voice.

She already knew she was outside. The smells in the breeze and the feeling of the sun on her face had told her of the sudden difference. As she opened her eyes, she focussed on the nearest thing. Which turned out to be a HUGE gun pointed in her direction. "eeep."

"C'mon," said Hotaru, taking the frozen girl's hand and tugging her forward, incidently moving her past said anti-aircraft gun. "I want you to see this."

Minako eventually got her feet working again, turning her gaze around to look at something vaguely like a WWII pillbox being constructed nearby.

Seeing her gaze, Hotaru explained. "That's where the DHD is, they're building a control area. Oh, and those hills over there? That's going to have the windmill and solar panels eventually. Right now we're tied into the hydroelectric plant here."

"Ah hah," said Minako, her mind derailed temporarily. The reality and enormity had just struck her while she was watching an alien bug the size of her fist trundle along the ground. She was on a completely different, truly alien, world. Just going to England, somewhere outside Japan, had been a big deal to her. Now she'd taken a step onto a world.

"Hotaru!" called out one group of soldiers. Hotaru waved and smiled at them.

Minako blinked and started realizing that practically everyone here apparently knew her companion. Knew her and LIKED her from all the smiles and waves, which Hotaru apparently returned with the same sincerity.

A dog wurfed uncertainly at her from nearby, and a falcon of some kind wheeled once overhead before returning to the heavy leather glove of some woman-soldier nearby.

Hotaru merely continued to tug her companion forward. "Come on, I want you to see my father."

"You do?" Minako asked as her friend drew her attention.

"Uh-huh. I'm sure that he'd want to meet any friends of mine. And I'd like for you to get to know him."

"Well, I can understand that. Though...."

"You don't have any problem with doing it, right?"

The blonde shook her head and laughed. "No, I was just thinking that _my_ Mom and Dad aren't as easy for us to get to."

"Oh?"

"Well... they're in a different country. Different planet. Whatever. The point is that they don't know what's really going on. So I'm going to have to wait until those military guys can set up a 'visiting' day or something before I can introduce you to them."

"You want me to meet your parents too?"

"Yeah. Why not?"

"I've never had friends my own age to do this with, so it's great to be able to do it now."

"Ah, I understand. But let's not worry on that. 'Don't spend the small stuff', I always say. It's better to just let us see how things go, right?" "Sure!" the younger girl chirped. "And now I can show you all the neat stuff I've been around. Maybe you'll get to meet Uncle Genma too!"

"Well then. Lead on."

"Of course!"

* * *

"(Okay, this is bad,)" Ranma murmured.

"(Certainly. But we have to act fast,)" Shion agreed.

"(Unfortunately, it only needs ta squash us. But we do have one thing goin' for us.)"

"(And that is?)"

"(We can hopefully out run that thing,)" he answered. "(It's big and strong, but with all that weight, it's slow.)"

"(Then it'd be best if we moved away to a position better suited for us to fight from.)"

"(Exactly. Special technique that anyone can learn. Bonaparte?)"

#I'm right with you. Get on, and I'll get you to a better place real quick.#

* * *

Minako had been aware that her new friend's father was a scientist, and had been expecting to see someone like all those white coated people back at the SGC. They were people who could rattle off yards off technical terms that made her head hurt. So she had not been paying much attention to them, and wasn't quite sure if she should be bothering those people in those few times when they weren't working.

However, she had not been expecting to be pulled into a small structure that looked like something out of an old movie. All around the edges of the room were various types of equipment with all these dials, buttons and switches that she couldn't even identify, never mind understand. Heck, she only noticed the one with the little green screen with the wavy line on it from television. And with all the tables covered with items that she wasn't sure she wanted to get near, she was a little wary of the situation.

In the middle of all this was a tall man who had welding goggles over his face, and a pair of soldering irons in his hands as he poked the tools into some electronics, making sparks pop up. Then he leaned back, pushed the goggles up, and laughed loudly. "Finally, my latest device is complete!"

That was, at least in Minako's opinion, the look of a mad scientist.

"Dad?" Hotaru said. "Daddy!"

"Wha... oh, hello Hotaru. It's nice to see you again," the man replied, and slipped on a pair of glasses. "And who's your new friend?"

"She _is_ my friend. Her name's Minako Aino, and she's been staying at the SGC."

"Oh, and you brought her back with you."

"Uh-huh."

Doctor Tomoe smiled back at the two of them, and focused on the blonde. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Minako."

"Uhh... Nice to meet you too, sir."

"Now, now. You're Hotaru's friend. There's no need to get formal."

"I'm glad."

"It's good to know that. I'm sure that you'll want to meet everyone."

"Probably. Though I do want to see this 'Ranma' guy Hotaru's been talking about."

"Has she been doing that?"

"Sure has," the long haired girl confirmed. "So, where is he now?"

"Off world on a mission. Hotaru was on Earth, so the rest of the team went for a simple checking out of the latest planet we've found."

"Oh... And I so wanted to see her boyfriend."

"Minako!" the other girl blurted, covering her flaming cheeks with her hands.

"What?"

"Please?"

"Ah, but my little girl is growing up," Doctor Tomoe sighed happily.

Hotaru ducked her head to hide her blush.

* * *

Ranma took aim as he balanced on Bonaparte's back. _beep beep chiuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!_

"Okay, zat guns no do much," observed Ranma.

"#Oh boy! My turn! My turn!#" Bonaparte's main cannon began firing.

"I don't think you've got sufficient caliber to do anything here," said Shion from within Bonaparte's crew area.

"#Hey... that's not a nice thing to say.#"

"We don't have any weapons that can really put a dent in that thing," said Shion, checking her equipment. "The armor's just too thick. Waitaminute. There's some leakage? Looks like those spires are microwave transmitters remote guiding the crab-mech."

Ranma grinned. "I have plan."

* * *

"All right, welcome to...?!" Jack O'Neil stopped.

Corporal DeMille brought his camcorder up and started filming with the sort of intense focus that would have earned him great recognition - if this wasn't all classified and top secret and all.

"Big," said Daniel Jackson, offering his opinion.

"Indeed," seconded Teal'c.

"Good googly moogly," summed up Minako.

"It's chasing something?" asked Hotaru.

"Uhm, sir? I think we need bigger guns," said Captain Carter.

"Ya think?" asked Colonel O'Neil.

"I wonder if that's where SG-X is," pondered Daniel Jackson as he indicated the gun turrets on the big crab thing trying to shoot something at ground level.

_FWASH!_

Seeing Sailor Saturn go running off, Minako had to admit that was a good idea. Except that was an awfully BIG menace. "Oh well. Venus Power Make UP!"

Samantha Carter blinked at the two running off.

Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c all glanced at each other, then at the lone female in their midst.

"Sir?" said Sam, thinking she knew what was going through everyone's heads. "I still don't know how they're doing that. Current theory is that it has something to do with Higgs fields."

"Uh, right. Well, it looks like DeMille's already gone after them," said Jack after trying to clear an image of Captain Carter doing as the two younger girls had done.

* * *

There was only one unit functioning. It would be enough to deal with these intruders.

#Alert!  
Spatial Disturbance Detected. Pattern Match 92%  
Enemy Presence Likely.#

The city brought systems up. The Enemy's return. Systems went through automatic checks. Systems had failed over the eons and there wasn't a great deal that could be done to bring them back. The city was not an AI and its own systems had been compromised by time and neglect.

It would have to commit all available resources nonetheless.

* * *

She put everything she had into it. "Silence Glaive Surprise!"

_SHWONK!_

"Whoa, that's pretty thick armor," said Venus as Saturn's attack slammed into the crab-machine. It stopped and the turrets swiveled around. "Uhm, maybe we ought to get out of here?"

_Crack_

The first shot went wide as one of the legs failed, but the mecha was quickly compensating. The severed leg sent up a plume of dust as it landed on several buildings.

"I think you're right," agreed Saturn.

* * *

Ranma had known what it had meant when the attack had come, and when the crab-thing had changed targets.

He had leapt from Bonaparte to a roof, jumped from roof to roof briefly, then started scrambling up one of the crab-thing's legs as it strode off.

Pieces of building and chunks of the removed leg would sail past him, but the odd gait was the difficult part to get used to as he scrambled up the crab-thing. There were some close moments, requiring ducking and weaving.

A small turret underneath the body of the crab briefly opened up, but was silenced a moment later by Bonaparte using his main gun again.

Finally he reached the main body and found an access hatch. Lining up the zat'nik'tel to fire on it was difficult, but once he popped it open he could begin digging his way through the weird machinery. All he had to do was find a stop button right? In the logic of things like this it would be a big red button, so all he had to do was look for that, right?

Parts began raining down.

* * *

The various designs all had their pluses and minuses of course. The "squirt" of data from Bonaparte, automatically sent when his sensors had detected that the Stargate had opened to home coordinates, had indicated some very interesting developments. Searching records had revealed that the world was "Zeno" - the world of the second approach.

Processors considered this Tau'ri series. "Run Joe Run." The Alsatian (aka German Shepherd) had some excellent things to be said for it, not the least of which was that it could fit into a number of environments with ease.

More than one sibling for Bonaparte. Someone to investigate Zeno and what happened there.

It bore consideration.

* * *

"Ranma?" Saturn stopped and confronted the mecha she'd been running from.

"What's all that coming out its back end?" asked Venus. "Some of its smoking."

"It's Ranma." Saturn raised her glaive. "It's slowed down to try and deal with him."

"Oooh?" asked Venus. Hotaru's boyfriend was useful AND cute? Made her own chances that much better, didn't it?

"Covering fire," said Saturn, remembering some lessons from the Marines. "I'll provide the cover. You get behind me and shoot at it. Silence Wall!"

"Hmmm. That sounds good," admitted Venus as bullets spattered against the force field. "Crescent Beam!"

* * *

Ranma pulled something out that sputtered and sparked and made enough noise that he scuttled away before it went "BANG!"

He clung to a section of underbelly, hanging out over a sheer drop.

Ranma pulled something out that sputtered and sparked and made enough noise that he scuttled away before it went "BANG!"

He clung to a section of underbelly, hanging out over a sheer drop as the crab-mech started acted like his father after a night on the town. It got really tipsy, and was having trouble standing straight up, so it stumbled around trying to find its footing. For a moment, it looked like it was going to get its balance back, but then it hit into a big building that had the sort of utilitarian look that only factories or warehouses had, and started falling in a way that it wasn't going to be able to recover from.

And he was hanging from the bottom of it. He couldn't jump when it was standing, as it was so high that it hurt to land. But if he stayed on it, he'd be caught up in its crash. Neither option was too appealing, and there was only one thing that he could do at that moment. It was his only choice for survival, and had he been anyone else, it most likely wouldn't work. But he had a chance to make it through.

He just had to survive long enough to manage it.

* * *

As the giant crab mech fell, it went almost like it was in slow motion. First, its legs went out from under it, and then it toppled over on top of the structure, blowing up a debris cloud as it did so. That was followed by a fireball that blew out of the edges of the crater, and a massive explosion that blew up everything it could. Blast after blast came afterwards, cracking through the air with their repeating concussive force that tore the building to shreds.

"RANMA!" Saturn screamed, and raced off in the direction of the fallen mech.

Venus pressed her lips together into a thin line. "This _can't_ be good."

* * *

The computer detected the blast, and the loss of communication with the unit, and quickly determined what had happened. It was clear that the threat was major, and the mech had not been sufficient to deal with small, fast moving enemies. That meant that it had to change strategies.

#Unit Lost  
Alternate Plan needed.  
Activate And Dispatch Alternate Unit.  
Use Specialty Unit.#

* * *

Safely within Boneparte's crew area, Shion had been protected from the dust cloud that the explosion had kicked up, so she was able to look around at what was going on. Not that she could tell much, as the place was full of the obscuring smoke.

"Boneparte? Are you okay?" she asked.

#I'm okay. We're far enough away that I'm only getting hit by pebbles.#

"That's good to hear."

#Thanks! But... I haven't detected any sign of Ranma... Wait. I have movement....#

"Where?"

#There. I'll show you.#"

She looked at what he turned to face, and saw a figure running out of the smoke. At first, it wasn't clear who that was, but it was certain that it was a person. But then, as the runner became more and more visible as she watched.

#Ranma!#

"That's my name," the pigtailed boy coughed as he came out into an area that was relatively clear. "No wear out."

"How'd you make it?" she asked in pleased astonishment. "You were not in a good position."

"(None of it was good. When the big can fell far enough, I jumped off, and ran on the roof. Not much fun when the floor was fallin' apart under my feet. Then I just jumped as far as I could, and then got movin'.)"

"(Only you could manage something like that, I suppose. Still got all your fingers and toes?)"

"(Ten of each. The rest I'll check later.)"

"(That'd be fine with me,)" she replied, and shook her head in gentle bemusement 


	9. Chapter 9: of KOSMOS and Chaos

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_SciDISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Also note that some text in the original came in different colors, but doesn't support that function as far as i can tell.

Chapter 9: of KOS-MOS and chaos

* * *

The City was not an AI. It had a set of protocols to deal with a number of situations, but if the initial programmers had not envisaged a possibility, they had not set up to deal with it. Waiting for a rescue that had never come, they had never foreseen thousands of years passing between the initial attacks and anyone who might help showing up. The idea that a completely foreign cavalry might arrive not at the last moment but millenia afterwards - not considered.

The Enemy had been detected. Those long dead programmers had not understood the nature of their enemy - how could they? Like Samantha Carter might have been without even having heard of Tolkien or even the Brothers Grimm, the idea of something that bore resemblence to magic was simply technology not currently understood.

They had been helped enormously in that the approach here had been different from the world now known as Refuge. Refuge had been done quickly, methodically, efficiently. By the time anyone knew they were being set up - the hammer had already been falling on them. Here the attackers had proved their superiority and power by causing pain and destruction among this lesser race. They hadn't struck the final blow until the natives had actually become a threat. Actually put on the defensive, she had retaliated and then faded away from the now-dead world.

A recording played back the incriminating evidence. More than the energy blasts, more than the speed of the attackers, there were the uniforms.

The Enemy had returned in their sailor uniforms.

Systems activated and tried to find methods of retaliating but too much time had passed, too little repair done. The little trapmaker robots were the last to go, and they'd spent centuries overtrapping the areas around the central factories. In some cases the problem was simply a connection that had come loose or a weld that had broken with age. In some cases water seepage or uneven heating had caused some of those same traps to go off, and those had taken out delicate mechanisms.

Now the mechanisms were like an old and feeble human lying on its deathbed, without even teeth to bite at an attacker. It searched and found only one mechanism left to deal with these intruders. Still, it was like the dying human had found a gun under their pillow. It just might be enough.

* * *

"Okay," said Jack O'Neil. "We'll take that one."

Ranma and Shion glanced at him, then at the two buildings, then back to him.

"Why you take newer looking one?" asked Ranma.

"Experience," said Jack.

"(As guests,)" said Daniel in Japanese. "(It would be remiss for us to unnecessarily place burdens on those who invited us.)"

"(Your Japanese is improving,)" observed Ranma.

"(I have a knack for languages,)" admitted Daniel.

"(The pencil is yelling,)" said Jack.

"(At least more so than some,)" appended Daniel.

"You can have that factory," indicated Jack as if he were making a major concession. "Just keep in radio contact and don't touch anything."

"This is SG-X's find," complained Shion. "Besides, there may be traps activated by radio emissions."

"Okay, let's just make line of sight contact, flashing targetting lasers at something," said Jack, thinking out strategies on the fly.

"#That sounds like my job,#" pointed out Bonaparte. "#Those stairs don't look too safe.#"

"For someone of your weight?" asked Jack, eyeing the talking tank. There were already times he really really wished he could call in a talking tank on his missions. It would probably be an enormous boon in those delicate negotiation situations he was finding himself in all to frequently.

"Most of building look fall in," mangled Ranma.

"So we'll take the offices," said Shion. "We can flash Bonaparte from the windows if something happens."

* * *

"I wanted to go," complained Hotaru.

"That thing was after US," pointed out Minako. "If we go in where they haven't disabled these sensie-thingies, we'll just draw fire."

"Still..." pouted Saturn.

"There's only one thing to do in a case like this," decided Venus.

"What's that?" asked Saturn.

"Go shopping!" declared Venus, pointing at some alien boutique.

_Vrreee! THUNK._

Saturn removed her glaive from the neatly bisected remains of some alien trap device.

"Or we could just stay here and watch for menaces," tried Venus.

Saturn merely sighed and went from pouting to sulking.

* * *

"Whoa," said Shion, looking into the mirror.

The mirror-Shion moved to flip her hair and stretch while the original stared.

"(That's kinda creepy with the real you standing still and the mirror-you moving,)" observed Ranma from his post at the door.

Shion ran her hand across the apparently smooth surface, frowning as she felt something nick her. "It looks smooth, but there are tiny fibers or edges to it."

Then the mirror-Shion began coming out of the mirror, silvery metal extruding itself into a familiar shape.

"Oh hell," said Ranma and Shion simultaneously.

* * *

"Hey, DeMille, get shots of this will ya?" asked O'Neil, pointing.

"I do not understand, O'Neil," said Teal'c in a low voice. "You have referred to the cameraman as a 'worthless weaselfaced toady' prior to this instance."

O'Neil looked off in the distance and nodded once before replying in the same soft tone. "True. But a couple'a things happened since that time oh-so-long-ago."

"That was less than an hour ago," pointed out Teal'c.

"One, he was chasing after a big walking tank instead of looking for a foxhole. Give him points for guts if not brains," said McNeil. "Second - I want pictures of this. Ya know that sorta picture Daniel's got on his computer?"

"I believe he called it a 'walltaker'," said Teal'c.

"That's 'wallpaper'," said Samantha from where she was apparently engrossed in looking over some gadgets.

"Uh huh," said Jack, gesturing at one of the gadgets. "I want one of these. Next time I go into a firefight. Armor. Not getting hit is a good thing!"

"Land-mates," said Daniel, walking by with an odd sort of plastic tablet.

"Excuse me?" Jack asked.

"The script here is similar to that of Refuge's 'City', and the ideograms on the units indicate 'land' and 'to combine with' - hence, 'land-mate'," said Daniel. "You know what concerns me is that they had these and it apparently did them no good. There are mummified bodies in three of them."

"There are at least three versions of these," said Captain Carter. "The first type looks like it was developed in a hurry - the armor isn't complete and there's no evidence of a fully environmental enclosure. The second time has more complete armor and better coverage. The third has jets, but look at the edges and quality of the equipment - especially at this end. More details mismatched, seams that don't quite fit, and cheaper materials."

"Ah," said Jack. "I see."

"I don't," admitted Daniel with a look at Jack that indicated his skepticism.

"The facility too," said Samantha Carter, pointing at a bank of robot arms and gadgets. "I'll bet this factory was building something entirely different, then the inhabitants found themselves under attack. They started working out a defense, a way of fighting back, and they were getting frantic."

"Making mistakes as they tried to get these out in time to do them some good," said Daniel, nodding. "Okay, that fits with some of what I'm making out here. Maybe I ought to check with Bonaparte, he might be able to do a full translation."

_brrrrtt brrrrrttt BOOM!_

"That didn't sound good," said Jack with a deep and heartfelt sigh.

* * *

Shion fired repeatedly at her chrome twin despite the apparent lack of effect. "(Don't fight hand to hand!)"

"(Why the heck not?!)" asked Ranma, who'd been about to do that.

"(When I touched the mirror is when it came out of the mirror, and it hasn't changed from my appearance,)" yelled back Shion over the sound of her gun. "(I'm not sure why but it duplicated me down to my clothing. If I hadn't put down the gun and my carrypack it might have duplicated those too.)"

Ranma nodded. "(Yer bullets were slowing it down, but it seems to be adapting.)"

"(We need to get out of here now,)" said Shion, realizing the same thing. "(Let's head for one of those microwave towers.)"

* * *

Fighting with a person was something that Ranma knew well, as he had been trained with various techniques for taking someone down. There were moves for delaying an opponent, disarming an attacker, and killing an enemy. Any of those he could have used against an organic fighter, and was completely able to fight without having to worry about that. Then there was the fact that he had to combat machines, but he was reasonably certain that he could manage that much. After all, he only had to damage it enough, and break it in good enough places to take it out of commission.

But doing either at the moment would be a problem, since they were being attacked by something that was human shaped, but was certainly not a person.

"(Damn! This sucks!)" he growled as he ran.

Shion turned just enough to let off a short burst of fire from her gun to shoot at their pursuer. "(Why don't you shoot too?)"

"(Need a moment ta pull it out. Would do it too, 'xcept...)"

"(It isn't cooperating.)"

"(Exactly.)"

#I'm not sure, but I think that my main gun won't be a help.#

"(Since it will only serve to bring this place down around us, and not really manage to get us away from it, I'd agree.)"

#I'm sorry....#

"(It's not your fault.)"

"(That's true. After all, it ain't like ya made it come after us,)" Ranma growled as he pulled a chunk of debris off a wall as they ran out of the place, and hurled it at the attacker, scowling as the chrome duplicate of Shion ignored the hit. "(This is all that metal girl's fault. Lucky us.)"

* * *

"Okay, this is not so good," O'Neill commented as he lowered his binoculars.

Daniel raised a brow at his friend. "I would think that seeing allies being chased by a metal version of one of them would do it."

"Indeed," Teal'c commented with a nod. "This is a most unexpected problem."

"You're telling me. How do we fight that?" Jack asked.

"Unfortunately, this is not something that I have heard of being encountered before."

"Swell. What is it?"

"Could be some sort of machine that shifts its appearance. Or it could have been something built to mimic her shape," Carter put in. "But there is something more important, sir?"

"Like what?"

"Stopping it."

"True. Let's go see if we can take care of the Tin Man's sister."

* * *

Venus looked at the sound of explosions and frowned. "That doesn't sound good."

"I wonder if the others are in trouble...." Saturn murmured worriedly to herself.

"Especially one guy in particular?"

"Well.... That is.... I do care about everyone...."

"But you _really_ like him. That's okay. He's your boyfriend, right? So you shouldn't be ashamed if you worry about him. I mean, you'd be concerned if he was.... being chased by a metal version of your other friend...."

"When would that happen?"

"Right now," the blonde commented, as she pointed a gloved finger towards the explosions.

Saturn turned to look, and stared wide eyed as the rest of SG-X running away from a metal version of Shion.

* * *

SG-1 went in with as much confidence as they could gather. They had had a number of successes of late, though their visit to the world of the Nox had played out a little less well than it could have.

_BOOOM!_

On seeing Bonaparte use his main gun on the metal-Shion, and that shot connect - the immediate thought was that they wouldn't have to get involved after all.

On seeing the metal-Shion get up and begin pursuit at higher speeds and with rapid movements from cover-to-cover that assessment was changed.

"Spread out, take positions, wait for my signal to converge fire," began Jack.

"Its spotted us," pointed out Daniel Jackson as the chrome woman shifted directions abruptly.

"Belay that, find cover and just shoot!" ordered Jack.

_shu BOM! brrrrt brrrrrt brrrt!_

Teal'c began firing his staff weapon, which the figure seemed almost to flow around. Jack, Daniel, and Sam opened up with bursts of fire that seemed to hit and cause the chrome to deform at the impact before flowing back to the original shape.

"Sir," said Sam over the radio, "this would be the end project - what the builders were diverting attention to when those last 'land-mates' were being constructed."

The metal-Shion oriented on Sam's position. It held out a hand, the shape of which changed. _Choom!_

"I'm hit," realized Carter as she felt a flash of pain at her shoulder.

"What the ?!" said Jack. "Carter! Fall back!"

Moving so quickly it practically flew, the metal Shion stood over the wounded Carter. The gun arm lengthened to touch her wound, then shifted back into a fairly normal configuration.

When the metal-Shion became a metal-Carter except for the arm that engulfed her rifle, Carter had the inane thought for a moment that she looked good with longer hair. The shifting finished with a nearly perfect double of her, looking at her with a pitiless expression as it raised a now-chrome rifle to point at her.

Jack, Teal'c, and Daniel scrambled to get to positions where they could shoot and not hit their teammate.

"Crescent... BEAM!"

The metal-Carter whirled and charged off after the two distant figures, the small wound the attack had caused sealing itself.

As Jack worked to treat the wound, Carter was still analyzing. "Sir, that's twice now. The moment those two make an appearance - they become targets of choice."

"Noticed that," said Jack. "Hold still."

"Its some form of nanotechnology," continued Carter, thinking it was nice to be able to concentrate on something besides how much this hurt. "It duplicated our guns. Then it sampled my blood and duplicated me."

"We noticed," said Jack, thumbing his radio. "Hotaru, get yourself and your friend back through the Stargate now. Do not, repeat NOT, allow physical contact between either of you and the construct."

"We'll have to fall back too," said Daniel. "Hey, look at those lights."

"The emergence of the construct and the lights atop those towers may be related," pointed out Teal'c.

"Yeah, but first we get to the Stargate then we cover Hotaru and her friend getting through. Then we get out ourselves." Jack frowned. "Unless... Do you think we can get one of those 'land-mate' thingies working?"

"Not in time," said Carter.

* * *

Jedite was not an idiot. Oh, admittedly, the shackles of mind control laid on the four generals were old and well entrenched and tended to dumb them down a lot. Still, he had been quite clever in his own day and had been exactly that - a general. One who was used to commanding HUMAN armies (though admittedly of much smaller size and less technologically developed equipment) and was now working with these yoma.

Sometimes Sailor Moon was backed up by this 'Tuxedo Kamen' fellow. Sometimes she was backed up by human soldiers. On occasion she had both.

This was not expected. He certainly hadn't expected the 'cattle' to be able to respond and field effective anti-yoma forces. Beryl had originally sent them on their way with the idea that there could be nothing in this new world which would prove a hindrance to their plans. Sailor Moon, obviously a minor Senshi left over from the old Silver Millenium, was easily dismissed. Her victories on her own were largely luck or due to assistance.

The tuxedo clad fellow looked oddly familiar, but was likewise something that could be dismissed. If he were truly a threat, he wouldn't be sniping from the sidelines but would be fighting up front.

Now these humans were another thing altogether. They were a well trained fighting force armed with sophisticated weapons. Yes, they were normal humans. They were not victims however. A minor nuisance perhaps, but it was far easier to take a heavily armed soldier as a serious threat.

Now that Sailor Moon had been joined by an ersatz Sailor Mercury (obviously a Junior League version) the problems kept accumulating.

Fortunately he had a plan in place whereby he could gain energy, spy on the opposition, and prepare a trap for these allies of these two minor Senshi. Nobody would suspect this assistant of a shrine priest as anything but a gardener and a bit of a fool. Until it was too late, of course.

And he had to avoid getting hit with those zap guns anymore. Those seemed to have had some residual effects.

* * *

Tessa handed the devices out. "We don't know how well these will work. Supposedly if the yoma tries to attack, they'll do that 'energy drain' on you. If you feel that, pull this tab here. The device will deliver an EM spike that won't harm you but should disrupt the energy transfer process."

"That's a lot of 'if' and 'should' getting involved," pointed out a soldier.

"We're dealing with a largely unknown enemy whose abilities and technology are also unknown," said Tessa. "We're doing the best we can under the circumstances. Observation, theory, countermeasure. We have to assume that once we have an effective countermeasure the enemy will try to circumvent it."

"So what about finding the enemy before they find us?" asked another soldier, putting the hexagonal gadget in a pocket.

"We've determined that areas of lowered EM band transmission are normally associated with haunted buildings, ghosts, and these predations," said Tessa. "We've found one area showing an increase of this is the Hikawa Shrine. Since this is also within the area these vampiric aliens are manifesting, we've contacted the two Senshi and Mister Chiba about investigating."

* * *

When the chrome-metal Samantha Carter with the right arm resembling a gun began shooting at the two girls in short skirts, SG-X had determined where the chase was going and had gone ahead at high speeds.

Traps had gone off repeatedly, only to bounce off of Bonaparte's armor.

Shion fumbled with her packs inside Bonaparte's cockpit.

Ranma's attention was occupied entirely with trying to hold on.

#Shion, look at this.#

One of the monitors flashed a view of one of the towers. Particularly the top of that tower.

"It's tracking the position of that assault unit," realized Shion. "Probably receiving and sending data or power. So, I was right."

#We're at the intersection.#

"Ranma, get ready," called out Shion.

* * *

They couldn't fly, but they could make impressive leaps with a running start. Which currently they had.

Saturn shot past Venus, who turned to fire off a quick shot at their pursuer, pulling a laser pistol out of somewhere.

_Brrrt!_

Venus dropped the laser pistol and clutched her hand, turning and running as the pursuer continued to approach.

The construct stopped, eyes tracking over the broken laser pistol until it found something it was looking for. A foot stretched and flowed, touching something. Again the form blurred and shifted.

The metallic Minako lifted her head back to track the two bouncing ahead of it. She renewed the pursuit.

_BRMMMMMMMMMMMM!_ went the Vulcan auto-cannon, shots deforming the metal as most of them struck.

_PUM!_ was the sound of Bonaparte's main gun just before the shot struck the metallic girl.

"She's down but getting back up," noted Ranma.

"Bonaparte! I'm ready, head to the tower with the extra little bits on top."

#Hold tight everyone!# instructed the little boy's voice as the tank screeched into sudden motion.

* * *

Sensors tracked the two fast moving blips heading for the Transport Circle. Another sensor tracked the ambushing group. Damage was severe but auto-repair was already taking place. Estimation of second group's course and speed led to a re-establishment of priorities. Original enemy was going after primary transmission tower.

#Threat value = high.

Estimate elimination of enemy units in five minutes, thirty seven seconds. Full repairs to take place in ten minutes, nineteen seconds. Pursuit of primary enemy and interception at Transport Circle to take place in twelve minutes, thirteen seconds.

Engaging.#

* * *

Saturn stopped as the pursuit apparently decided to go after another target. "Ranma? Ranma!"

"I wish I hadn't lost that laser pistol," complained Venus.

"Here," said Saturn, handing something over.

"What? This is a gun?"

"It's a Glock. Papa-san insists I always carry a back-up when I'm on a mission," said Saturn.

"Oh?" said Venus, hefting the gun and trying to get a feel for it. "Is it supposed to have purple trim and this little 'h' here?"

Saturn shook her head. "I noticed that the first time I transformed with it on me. I don't know why things do like that."

"Maybe because it's a weapon and you think of it like an accessory, I keep my bow when I transform - I think because I think of it differently than the rest of my clothes," opined Venus.

"Now we've caught our breath, let's go save Ranma," said Saturn.

* * *

Ranma flipped into the cover of some rubble and pulled out his zat'nik'tel. _bleep-bleep. chiuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. chiuuuuuuuuuuu._

The first shot hit and caused a static burst to run along the surface of the chrome Shion. The second went wide as the robot apparently ducked just enough.

"(It's adapting. The zat gun is barely slowing it down,)" said Ranma. "(Every shot slows it down a little less.)"

_ka bleep_ went the chrome-Shion's hand. _chiuuuuuuuu._

"(It just morphed its hand into a gun and is shooting back. Are you done yet?)" asked Ranma.

"(I'm accessing the terminal, but it isn't like these are particularly compatible systems,)" complained Shion. "(Bonaparte's the only reason this will work at all.)"

"#I'm filtering the de-encryption and control programs into the network. This is a tricky setup you know.#"

"I know, and I appreciate it," said Shion.

"(Where evil yoma menace,)" said an unfamiliar voice.

_THUNK!_

"(MINA CHAN!)"

Ranma growled as he saw the chrome Shion shifting to a chrome version of the girl with a bow in her hair as the enemy had just shot across the intervening space and was attacking with a singleminded ferocity. Especially as Hotaru was one of the two being attacked.

* * *

Enemy found. Energy profile matchup. Disregarding intruders as secondary targets. Eliminating Enemy as primary targets.

Matchup of Enemy combatant 'Senshi' confirmed.

Elimination of Enemy takes precedence over all other goals.

Unit is snargfarble gurp.

Warning. Intrusion occurring. Countermeasures activating. Countermeasures ineffective. Beginning lime jello sunshine tapioca measures.

Warnign. System latte pink bugaboo gear sparkle. Mismatch lacrosse camouflage self-destruct ungo.

Lagrange. Loophole server spin mungo no like.

Daisy, daisy, give me your answer true. I'm half crazy, falling in love with youuuuuuuuuuuuu.

010101010111010110.

KOS-MOS loaded. Please stand by.

* * *

"We're in," said Shion, looking up. The mechanical doll now was silent and unmoving but it had also changed quite a bit.

The face still looked a lot like her own, but some of the other two girls present was also duplicated in the appearance of the machine. It also was wearing a stylized seifuku-cheerleader uniform.

"(It just went after girls,)" said Ranma, a little put off by it never having taken him seriously as an opponent.

* * *

Rei wasn't too certain about how exactly she should take the situation that she'd found herself in. It wasn't that she'd become a magical girl, or that she'd made some new friends. Both of those were benefits in her book, and she knew that she could have jumped right in to the changes in her life without any worries.

What did have her bothered was the fact that she had to handle being an 'individual of importance' by a joint Japanese and American task force.

She'd gone from having to deal with the simple problem of having her family's shrine be at the center of some strange happenings to having military guys check up on her. At least most of them seemed to be alright, as they tended not to bother her so much. Sure, it was a bit annoying to have her background checked out, but it wasn't like they'd done it in a way that anyone else would notice.

But she did have a problem with Sosuke Sagara. That boy was a pain in the ass like no other. Not only was he only concerned with his 'mission', but he was completely clueless as to how to handle himself. He'd even resorted to spying on customers when she'd been selling fortunes! Fortunately, he was nowhere around, so she wouldn't have to use that fan she found to whap him on the head.

She had other things to worry about while she was in the airport anyway. "I'm getting a bad vibe here."

"There are policemen everywhere, so...." Usagi trailed off.

"That doesn't change anything."

"But at least we'll have some help."

"We... won't be getting help from them!" the raven haired girl replied as she kicked a charging officer, and beat away several others before leading he friends away.

"Something is wrong here," Ami commented, as they ran from the policemen.

"Other than the fact that they're coming after us?"

"Basically... yes."

"Just great."

"Let me see. Mercury power, make up!" Transformed into her Senshi form, Sailor Mercury activated her visor and scanned their pursuers. "They're nothing but sand!"

"Then it's time for me to get to it. Mars power, make up! Fire soul!"

"Moon prism power, make up!" called out Usagi, and after the usual light show, Sailor Moon stood along side her companions.

"Guess he's not going to be nice."

"Then he knows we're coming?"

"Probably."

"Then we'd better get going," the blonde commented, and her friends nodded as all three of them raced off.

* * *

There was little reaction from Sosuke as he saw what had happened through the lens of his targeting scope, but then he wasn't one for shows of emotion. Rather, it was to be expected to have some difficulties. At first, he had no trouble believing that local law enforcement would get involved in this sort of thing, as it wouldn't be the first time someone had screwed up in that way. Then, when the girls were being chased, it was possible that they might be dealing with possessed individuals. However, both of those were incorrect, as the Senshi had shown that those 'officers' were not even human, and had dealt with them accordingly, both at the same time.

Yet, he didn't have the time to wait around, as he had other things to do. His charges needed protecting, and he had to move to keep up with them. Knowing how emotional Rei Hino could be made it important to hurry to get into a proper position.

* * *

"Now, you annoying children will finally be taken care of," Jedite sneered as he raised his arms up and let the power crackle around them. That arced into a plane, and sent it moving to mow down the Senshi. Soon, they'd be taken out by the Earth machine, and the Dark Kingdom's goals would have no obstacles in its way. He was certain that he would be covered in glory, and was feeling like he was the most powerful being around.

That lasted just long enough for him to be shot in the leg.

As he was hobbled by that, the Senshi decided to add insult to injury by ignoring the plane (still moving but no longer under his control) and dealing with him directly.

"Shabon spray!" called out Mercury, enveloping the landscape in a mist.

"Rin, pyou, tou, sha, kai, jin, retsu, sai, zen. Akuryou taisan!" Mars chanted, slapping a ward onto his back.

"Moon Tiara Action!" cried out Moon, tossing her attack at him.

Jedite managed to roll out of the way, but still got hit by the plane that was coming for him. Fortunately for him, he hadn't been hit by it fully, abut that still left him very hurt indeed. He tried to struggle to get up, and knew that he was in a really bad situation at that moment.

He looked over towards where the Senshi were, and scowled at what they'd done to him.

With the Dark General clearly revealed, things were moving right along.

Sailor Mercury decided to try something new that her allies had made possible. "Mercury Pepper Spray Attack!"

"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" screamed Jedite as something went hiss and hit his face and gave him some severe pain and itching and caused his eyes to swell shut.

"Hmmmm," said Sailor Moon as she watched the evil bad guy rolling around on the ground, clawing at his own face. She thought this kind of interesting though, and maybe she could try something like that? Raising one hand up, she called out what she thought sounded sort of appropriate. "Moon... Ally Summoning!"

A swarm of soldiers popped apparently out of nowhere (startling the heck out of Sailor Mars whose intuition had apparently failed to notice a couple of big burly guys in camouflage nearby) and surrounded the guy injuring himself on the ground.

"Mercury Ally... " Sailor Mercury thought for a moment before nodding to herself. "Special Attack! 'Book 'em Dano!'"

"Since you're an alien monster preying on humans - you have no rights, you shouldn't remain silent, and anything you say can keep you from being getting severely hurt," said a Marine. "You're under arrest."_beep beep chiuuuuuu!_

Mercifully, unconsciousness took Jedite before he could claw his own eyes out.

"So you're going to interrogate him?" asked Sailor Mercury, handing off the used cannister and accepting a replacement that she tucked into a holster.

"Yes, ma'am," said one of the Marines, saluting the little girl. Kinda reminded him of HIS little girl back home.

"What about the Gonnorhea Convention?" asked Usagi.

"We'll be fairly humane and within the limitations of the Geneva Convention, not that he needs to know that," said a Marine in a lowered voice. "We'll probably have to keep him at least partly sedated until we know how to block any special powers he might have."

"Okay," said Sailor Moon, cheered by the thought of dark nasty types going into prison for a long long time.

"Ah, uhm," said Sailor Mercury. "I was speaking with one of the men with the sunglasses, and he had an idea..."

"Oh yes," said the Marine. "The onsen victory celebration. It's been arranged. I'll have the limo pull up."

Sailor Mars was about to yell about butting in on their battle when she stopped. Considered. "An onsen?"

* * *

"Colonel Maybourne? General Hammond sent these pictures to you and inquired if you wanted to get a few of these for investigational purposes."

"Oh?" The Colonel might have been a dark and nasty individual engaged in all sorts of dirty little secrets and plans. However he was becoming quite a fan of General Hammond and all that was being accomplished. "Let me see those."

The aide handed the envelope over and stood there with his fellow.

The Colonel opened the envelope, took a look at the first picture and just seemed to come to a total stop.

"Sir?" The aide was shocked. Were those tears welling up in the older officer's eyes?

Slowly, as if afraid to take his eyes off the first picture, the Colonel went to the second picture. He swallowed, sniffled, the tears beginning to track down.

"SIR?!" repeated the aide, suspecting the pictures were of something truly horrific.

"So... beautiful," whispered Colonel Maybourne, just before he keeled over and hit the floor.

"SIR?!" repeated the aide.

"Look at that grin. Frightening isn't it?" asked the second aide.

* * *

Professor Tomoe stared at the screen.

"The MALP went dead. Sir?"

The Professor continued to stare at the screen that had shown the next address scheduled to be explored. He said a word. Most assumed the word to be some Japanese swearword. They were wrong.

The Professor repeated the word. "Kaiju."

* * *

"Well, what about it?" asked one of the soldiers.

"As near as I can figure, the technology here is several orders ahead of what we could expect, some sort of quantum level technology," confessed Tessa. "I think we might be able to duplicate some of it, but it'll take years to work out the theories underlying this device."

Of course, Mizuno-san wanted copies of all information they could find, but she'd agreed to let them study it while she was soaking.

The Mercury Computer, if it had an opinion itself, merely sat on the table and quietly scanned.

* * *

"This is impossible," said Captain Samantha Carter, looking over the photographs.

"Until recently - so were alien parasites masquerading as ancient gods travelling the universe through wormholes and enslaving humans," pointed out Daniel Jackson. "How big are these thingies anyway?"

"This one is about the size of a six-story building," said Professor Tomoe.

"No. Absolutely impossible. Can't happen." Captain Carter insisted.

"I agree. The anatomy is completely wrong," said Janet Frasier.

"At least they can't fit through a Stargate," pointed out Jack. "What's the big deal anyway? It's just a big bug."

"This one's a big lizard," pointed out Daniel helpfully.

"This one's a big crab," added General Hammond.

"Ah," said Jack. "So what I don't see is - where's the big deal?"

"Just imagine flooding the market with crab meat," said Daniel.

"That's not it," protested Sam.

"I dunno, maybe it's the amount of crab poo," tried Jack.

"That could be a considerable mess," opined Teal'c.

"Those thighs are completely wrong," said Janet Frasier. "They'd shatter under the weight."

"Not to mention respiratory and circulatory problems with creatures that big," said Samantha Carter.

"It's just impossible," said Janet and Samantha together.

"On the other hand, consider if we found a six-story tall turkey," said Jack. "Can you imagine the drumsticks?"

"Probably feed a third world nation on one," agreed Daniel.

"I thought a 'turkey' was a movie the redeeming qualities of which were outweighed by its insufficiencies," mused Teal'c aloud.

"Nah, it's a big bird. Kinda like a chicken but a little larger. Remember when we had that bucket of KFC?" Jack tried to indicate how big a turkey was. "Like so. American tradition to eat one on certain holidays."

"Interesting," said Teal'c.

"What would it eat?" asked Daniel, then caught sight of one of the photos. "Oh right. Big bugs."

"You're missing the point," complained Captain Carter.

"Wonder if they've got giant cows," mused Jack. "I'd like a steak about THIS thick right about now."

"You don't understand why this is impossible," said Janet.

General Hammond frowned. "Is anyone else getting hungry?"

"Well, it is about lunchtime," said Daniel.

"ARGGHHHH!" said Sam and Janet together.

* * *

The system was a simple set up so that it could easily interface with alien computer programs. To have too many parts to it would have left them with too many possible points for it to break down, and many of the technicians didn't want that. As it was, they were happy that the work was relatively straightforward, since they were having to work with a 'unit' that was rather attractively package. A lot of the guys were rather pleased with that particular turn of events, and a few of them admitted that the idea of an attack unit with the body of a shapely young woman did have its appeal. Not that she ever really put any attention into their reactions to her appearance, but they manage to keep themselves from hitting on her.

Fortunately, the person in charge of computer security was a woman, and she insisted on a closed system to prevent any possible problems.

Sailor Kos-mos didn't care about any of that as she brought something up on the screen. "These are the files found on the ancient enemy. There is a high correlation between the appearances of Sailor V and Sailor H and these ancient enemies."

"How can she run in high heels like that?" asked Shion, as she watched a girl charge across the screen in pursuit of opposing soldiers.

"You know," Minako murmured, "I've never actually thought about it."

"Huh?"

"Well, think about it. When I transform, I wind up wearing heels. And I can run, jump, and kick all I want. I only trip from moment to moment."

"That's true... I think. I do have to wonder what kind of guy designed that sort of outfit."

Ranma blinked at her. "Why do you say that a guy made it?"

"What girl would design an outfit for battle that has a short skirt, not a lot of body defense, and has frills."

"One who wants girls to show off?"

"You're being... able to make sense. But whatever the reasoning, they aren't the best for combat."

"But powers make up for it."

"And from what I can see, only pretty girls were chosen," Minako chirped. "So they can pull it off, right?"

The others stared at her for a moment.

"What?"

"I can't understand why they're being so mean...." Hotaru whispered, looking pained at what was being displayed.

"They were invaders from outside the planet. They were not there to do anything save for destroying the local populace," Kos-mos commented.

"But I don't see how they could be so... mean. I mean, we're not, and our outfits look a bit like theirs."

"And you are not the same as them."

"I know...."

"Besides, I think that they're a different group than yours," Shion put in as she leaned towards the screen.

"Why do you say that?"

"Their outfits aren't the same as yours. Either one. I mean, just the bows on the front are different."

"What does that mean?"

"That they are probably from a group that was related to yours, maybe in just meeting somewhere in the past."

The pigtailed boy looked thoughtful. "They meet, share ideas, and break apart?"

"Exactly. Or they could have been a past culture that went dead. For all we know, it could be like two countries that bordered each other. They share some common cultural things, but don't get along with each other."

"Then they'd be Hotaru's enemies too."

"True. But until we have more information, we can't be certain."

"Then we come up with ideas, but can't prove them."

"Pretty much. I mean, it's entirely possible that we're dealing with a culture desperate enough to use young girls in an attempt to distract male soldiers."

"How'd that happen?" Ranma asked with a confused frown.

Just then, one of the attacking girls leapt over where the camera was focused, giving the recording a perfect view up her skirt.

All the human girls turned to face Ranma.

"I saw nothing! I heard nothing! I know nothing!"

* * *

Samantha Carter wanted to handle something that made sense. After all, she had been dealing with the knowledge that organisms that shouldn't exist had a whole planet to themselves. And trying to explain how a moth the size of a small airliner shouldn't be possible to her teammates had given her a bad headache, and more frustration than she cared to get involved with.

Luckily for her, she wasn't a physician, a biologist, or a veterinarian. They were stuck trying to figure out what to make of the creatures, while _she_ had other things to occupy her time, like the reports out of Japan. They were at least logical, and as far as she knew, they had been dealing with a group of girls who had energy projection powers, with slightly different delivery methods.

Then she read the latest set of documents, looked at the photos, and saw that one of the latest two was creating mists, while the newest member was shooting fire from her fingertips. Lines of energy were one thing, but actual flames were being used in this. That meant that the latest idea that they were just shooting out differing frequencies of energy went out the window, and she had to figure out how small fireballs could be used to attack monsters.

The only thing that she could do was to hang her head, and hope that sometime she'd get something that would make sense.

* * *

"Okay, what do we know about the ancient culture on Refuge?" asked General Hammond, sitting down and glancing over the various 'experts' assembled. Colonel Maybourne was there, looking inordinately pleased about something.

"The ancient civilization found on Refuge and two of these other sites were nanotechnologists," said Colonel Maybourne. "This is borne out by their materials technology and their genetic engineering."

Captain Carter dropped her pencil and stared.

Colonel Maybourne shrugged. "I was pretty thoroughly briefed by my people prior to this meeting. So these aliens make 'macro changes from the micro scale' as one of my technicians put it."

"That's a good way to put it," admitted Carter.

"She's a fair technician, and a little... strange, but she's a great 'explainer'," said Colonel Maybourne. "I've recommended she gets a grade advance and that she go over some of the reports and try to put things in less technical terms for me."

"Hmmm," hmmmed General Hammond, thinking this sounded like a good idea.

"These giant creatures are likely a result of the same thing according to that tech," said Colonel Maybourne. "If at all possible, I'd like to request tissue samples and then scan those tissues for nanomachines. Don't use an MRI - that would likely destroy what we're looking for."

Captain Carter blinked a couple of times. "Your technician?"

"Yes," said Colonel Maybourne, smiling like a cat who had a canary and was intent on keeping it.

"No name?" pressed Captain Carter.

"I want to keep this one, not see her get reassigned - even to this posting," allowed Colonel Maybourne.

"What else has this technician told you?" asked General Hammond, who'd been thinking along those very lines.

"She was wondering if the increased speed and movement of these 'sailor girls' could be possibly due to," said Colonel Maybourne, checking some notes, "an alteration of the effect on passage through the 'Higgs Field' and whether or not their attack effects could be related to 'superstring vibrational patterns'."

"Well, that's a theory," said a rattled-looking Samantha Carter.

"She did warn me that we might be looking at something she called 'Clarke's First Law' and that the science here is simply so advanced that it would take us centuries at least to work out the operating theories. Much like a caveman confronted by a modern battletank, we're simply too far behind to understand all but the simplest aspects," said Colonel Maybourne.

"Captain?" asked General Hammond.

"Clarke's First Law states that 'Any technology sufficiently advanced enough is indistinguishable from magic' - that if a gap in technology between the observer and the originator is too wide, the observer can't fit the observation into any sort of coherent worldview." Captain Carter glanced down at the table and wondered if she should meet this technician.

"What about your newest recruit on SG-X, this 'Kos-Mos'?" asked Colonel Maybourne, hoping that this would be an equitable exchange of information.

"She is another AI, therefore a sentient being, we're not turning her over to you," said Captain Carter.

"Pity," said Colonel Maybourne. Not that his group wasn't already seriously backlogged with research projects. "Oh, by the way, thank Bolo for me, would you? That information about the recall device did turn out to be something we didn't have. Just in case there's anything else we missed, we're building an X-302 now."

General Hammond nodded, thinking that went a lot to explain the 'kid given free run in a candy store' impression he was getting off the NID Colonel.

"Just some of the possible benefits of the artificial muscles is fascinating," said one of the other scientists present, feeling he had to contribute. "Have you seen the myomer-pipes we've worked out?"

"A pipe that pumps water by itself, a sort of peristalsis effect," explained Captain Carter.

"These 'land-mates'," said Colonel Maybourne, not seeing any immediate military use for those pipes, "how soon can we get one or two over in my area?"

"It may take a couple of weeks," explained General Hammond. "There are minefields and other difficulties in getting them out. Besides, understanding the technology might take us awhile, but there are parts we can use immediately - especially with the assistance of our big friend in Refuge."

"Such as?" asked Colonel Maybourne trying to seem indifferent and in this case failing miserably.

"All in good time," said General Hammond, faint smile on his face. "All in good time."

* * *

"So she can't shapeshift any more?" asked Minako.

"Just partial, no more full body-shifting," said Shion. "Partly this was designed so that she could try and duplicate the attackers and so was meant to be a temporary capability. Partly because the network connections of communication and power relay have been shut down. The ability to shapeshift was based on reading genetic material and something else that I'm not sure about. She was designed to evolve and adapt faster than humans could manage, and to exceed what they could foresee. Something that could have given them a Frankenstein scenario later on, but they were desperate."

Kos-mos blinked and opened a communication channel to Bonaparte, requesting data on 'Frankenstein scenario'.

Minako scratched her head. "So how 'partial'?"

"I can still reform specifics," said Kos-mos, shifting her right arm into a sword-arm and then a gun-arm. A helmet arrangement formed on her head and flipped down to cover her face.

"Okay, that's enough," said Shion, getting a little nauseous from watching that.

Kos-mos turned her unblinking red gaze on Shion as she mused over the file and then Bonaparte's commentary on human egos and pride, particularly the fragility observed there. She didn't understand this, but filed it away as part of an accumulating database.

"So what about investigating the remainder of this place?" asked Ranma.

"We already know that the inhabitants were originally the caniforms found on Refuge," said Shion. "However they did have contact with a human or near-human species in the past. There were records found by Daniel Jackson on..."

"P3X-972," said Hotaru, "Also known as 'Ernest's World', I just read that report. So you think one of the Four Races were these."

"Except that the lettering system used by these doesn't match any of the samples there. Still, the technology is sufficiently advanced that I don't see how they could have been missed." Shion frowned. Not all the pieces fit, but she thought that all of the sites from the Refuge "letter" were likely colonies explored by the same species or at least of importance to that race. Maybe the next one would have a piece of the puzzle that would fit.

* * *

Sailor Pluto was blissfully unaware of events transpiring on another world. The Gates, and her abilities, were confined to a single star system.

She knew something had happened. The future her had done something drastic and time had been altered. Nothing major so far as she could tell.

Sailor Moon had just started fighting youma in Azabu Juuban. A quick peek had shown that she and Sailor Mercury had linked up, and that Sailor Mars was apparently around. Perfectly normal lunch at school other than the three Sailor "M"s were all involved - two present and one referenced.

Sailor V should be around, but Pluto hadn't spotted her. She'd spotted Artemis though so she knew Sailor Venus was somewhere nearby.

Queen Beryl was around. Sailor Moon was gaining the experience she needed. Mercury and Mars were joining her. Tuxedo Kamen was around and looking particularly dashing at this young age.

Yes, everything was as it should be.

* * *

Apophis would have liked to strike back against those upstart Tau'ri. Unfortunately he was having enough trouble putting down all the problems that had occurred because someone had circulated rumors that he was currently weakened and overextended.

He was nothing if not persistent, and he was slowly regaining power.

THEN he would strike back at those Tau'ri and make them rue the day they went up against the god APOPHIS!

Though this time he thought maybe a little more reconnaisance might be in order.

* * *

"That onsen hit the spot," said Usagi happily.

"It was rather nice," agreed Ami.

"Hmph," said Rei. "Did you see what they want to do here? Firepoles to a hidden underground base? Trains to rapid express us to yoma outbreaks? This is unacceptable!"

"I think that's Usagi's 'wish-list' actually," said Ami, eyeing it.

"Oh," said Rei, looking again at it. That explained the smiley-faces.

"Did you get to the giant robots?" asked Usagi. "That would be soooooo cool!"

Rei hung her head. "Don't you think we should be avoiding any entanglements to the military and the government? They just want us under their control!"

"Actually they've repeatedly stated that they mainly want to keep us under surveillance and provide assistance," said Ami quietly. "They haven't made any demands so far, just requests, and they DO have a valid interest in our battles."

"They probably have this placed bugged!" declared Rei.

"In which case we just request they remove any such device," said Ami.

"I don't trust them either," declared Luna. "In the old days we certainly didn't need to rely on outside help."

"See?" said Rei.

"See what?" asked Usagi.

"See why we need to get rid of these military twits, starting with that Sagara!" Rei stood and looked at her two teammates expecting agreement.

"Well, Mister Sagara does have some problems fitting in," admitted Ami.

"He does?" asked Usagi.

"Exactly, we don't need them OR that Tuxedo Kamen guy!" declared Rei.

"Well, I don't know about that," said Ami.

"But Tuxedo Kamen is kinda cute," said Usagi. "So are some of those Marines, right Ami?"

"I - I - I haven't noticed any such thing," declared a now blushing and fidgeting Ami.

"I think one of them thought you were kind of cute," teased Usagi.

"I - I - I'm sure you're mistaken," stuttered Ami seeming to melt in on herself in sheer embarassment.

Rei covered her face. This was obviously going to take awhile.

* * *

Being in essence a machine, if a sentient one, Kos-mos had a rather direct way of thinking about things. Whether that was just inherent in her design, or was a left over from her previous incarnation wasn't clear, but she made no bones about what she thought of things. She was perfectly aware of what she was, what her purpose might be, and what she could face.

As such, she would go through activities when ordered, even if she didn't understand the purpose of them. "Shion. Is this necessary to go through with?"

"Of course it is!" Minako answered instead of the scientist as they strolled through the market area. "Girls no matter where they're from do this sort of thing. And you're a girl, right?"

"My body styling is formulated in aesthetically pleasing feminine lines."

"Uhh... I'll take that as a yes. And as a girl, this is what you do. You go _shopping_!"

"Females would be expected to purchase items as needed?"

"Not only when you _have_ to. Going out to buy stuff is something that girls do simply because they can. There's no rhyming or rapping to it. It's something that always has been."

"To put it another way, this is an age old way for women and girls to bond with others of their own gender," Shion commented with the tone of someone imparting wisdom to the ignorant.

Kos-mos turned her unblinking gaze on her. "Understood."

"That's good, but...." murmured Hotaru uncertainly.

"Is there a problem?"

"Not a problem...."

The eldest girl of the group looked at the youngest. "What?"

"Why do I have to wear all these oversized things? You can't really see me under all of this...."

"That's good."

"It is?"

"You're the one who was out there first, remember? If people knew who you were...."

"Oh."

"That's all well and good," Ranma grumbled. "But if this is a 'girl' thing, what am _I_ doin' here?"

"Pack mule," chorused both of the elder girls.

"Ugh...."

"Don't worry, Ranma," Hotaru tried to soothe. "At least we all want you here."

"Exactly. Not only is it good to have you around, so we can have male company, but we get a guy's opinion on stuff!" the blonde chirped, grinning mightily.

"On what?" he asked.

"On things like.... that! It'd be perfect for Kos-mos!"

Shion looked over and smiled. "That's so cute!"

Hotaru and Ranma watched as the blonde teen grabbed a peasant dress off of a stand and held the concoction up against the artificial girl. The outfit was something that wouldn't have been out of place in some sort of inn in medieval Europe, even if it had a top that would be tight against the bust of the wearer, a skirt that was show off shapely legs, and poofy shoulders. In fact, anyone that was dressed in it would look like a cross between an idol singer, and a porn version of a tavern wench. It even had little ribbons at the collar.

"Shion," Kos-mos said in that flat tone of hers.

"Yes?" asked the tall scientist.

"If you were to dress me in that, my appearance would go down 35 percent, almost immediately, with more declining to follow."

"Are you serious?"

"Upon wearing that, I would need to be cleansed. With fire."

When she said that, both Ranma and Hotaru nodded resolutely in agreement.

* * *

Senator Kinsey had once been totally against the idea of the continued use of the Stargate, as he feared what it could lead to. But that had been when he had first of it, and now things had changed. With everything they were getting, from the handheld healing devices, to the 'landmates', the boys at Area 51 would have work for _years_, and had more to come.

But as things stood, there were things that they could advance, at least in his opinion, and he was certain that he could manage it just fine.

"How hard would it be to figure out who any of these 'Sailor Senshi' would be?" he asked the man standing in front of her.

Major Morioka looked back at him and raised a brow. "Very."

"Please. There's a basic formula for it, isn't there? Girl, early teens, shows up, has some sort of powers, gets to transform, and you get another girl in a short skirt shooting off power blasts."

"In theory, it is simple. These girls _have_ shown a propensity for being different than others, like being a genius student, or having 'mystical' senses."

"Then what's the problem?"

"There are a lot of girls around within those parameters. We know that they come from my nation, and have been in a certain area in a certain city for at least part of their life, but there are a great many girls who fit the profile," the Japanese officer said as he dropped a set of papers on the senator's desk. "Those are basic descriptions of girls, with their file code numbers, all of whom could be Senshi, under what we know so far."

"There's got to be hundreds of girls there! Perhaps over a thousand! Can't you give me the short list?"

"Senator? That _is_ the short list."

Hearing that, Kinsey slumped in his chair and gave a grumble of disgust and frustration.

* * *

"Sam?" Daniel asked as he came to a stop on his way to the Stargate Command's mess hall. "Where are you going with that?"

Carter shifted the box in her arms, and looked at her friend. "My lab. I need this in there."

"You... need it?"

"It's going to be an important piece of equipment in there."

"Pardon me for saying so, but the last time that I checked, you were a physicist."

"I am," the blonde confirmed.

"Yes, well, as far as I know, high level physics doesn't need a coffee maker to be used for lab work."

"Of course it does. How else am I going to get my coffee?"

"'How', indeed. But why would you need to have coffee that much?" he asked, confused, and worried that the shadows under her eyes might be signs of something else.

"To drink, of course. You have to have times when you need to work long hours, right?"

"Yeah...."

"Well, sometimes I have to as well. And since I don't want to leave the reports every five minutes to go down to the commissary for new coffee, this makes sense."

"Ahh.... okay.... What 'reports' would they be?"

"You name them. From girls who can shoot energy bolts, to creatures who should be collapsing under their own weight, I have plenty to figure out."

"I see...."

"Then you won't mind if I go install this, right?"

"Sure," he said, cheerfully, "go right ahead."

"Thanks, and don't worry. Once I've got this figured out, I'll switch to tea for a long while, okay?"

"Might be a good idea."

"I'll be in my lab if you need me."

Daniel nodded, and let her go. "Meanwhile, I think that I'll have a chat with Janet."

Fortunately, he had merely muttered that when she was far enough away to not hear his words, so when he turned and headed off, she was still going on her way.

* * *

**AUTHOR NOTES:**

Okay, there's quite a bit more to post of this story, but it's going to have to wait. i only get so much time off, ya know, and i have to work on my Continuing Education credits. So i'll post more in another two weeks when i get a weekend, unless objections are raised.

Feel free to review, i'll forward on to Kender and maybe that'll help both of us with that writing block.


	10. Chapter 10: Hathor and Headaches

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Chapter 10: Hathor and headaches

* * *

A crypt in South America was opened. Something came out.

Something unpleasant happened to the two archaeologists investigating that crypt.

Some things had changed. Some things had not.

* * *

His name was Genma Saotome.

Had his timeline remained intact, he would now have Ranma enrolled in his last year at an all-boy's Junior High known for being "a bit rowdy." He would be planning a trip to China to polish off his son's martial arts, and then back to Japan to take over a small dojo after Ranma's marriage to an old friend's daughter.

His path had not crossed that of Soun Tendo, but of Soichiro Tomoe instead. He now was watching the building of a dojo monastery area where five Tendo dojo could have fit within the training yard.

He was respected by the locals. He was teaching many of their young ones, in fact. He taught the hand-to-hand combat lessons, while others taught other weapon groups and styles. Still, it was his dojo.

Genma watched in the distance as his son was being a pack mule for four women. One was his fiancee, another was that fiancee's friend, another was a teammate, and the final was an artificial lifeform built for combat. They were all attractive young ladies though.

_click click_

Genma knew the pictures would be censored. They'd told him so when he'd gotten the camera. That was fine. At least some of them would pass muster, and the letter back home to his wife would indicate that the old pledge was well on its way to being fulfilled. With four attractive young ladies surrounding him, the boy growing up strong and proud - most definitions of "manly" would be quite satisfied.

However, he wasn't ready to meet his wife yet. Sometimes her definitions seemed a bit... skewed.

* * *

The village wares were fairly simple. The things made in the village were of wood, or the materials had come from elsewhere. That didn't mean they were completely backwards. Cimmeria had begun trading with Refuge and the Tau'ri, and while it was all very limited in some respects - cloth was a constant.

The weather was not conducive to silkworms on Refuge OR the parts of Cimmeria close to the Stargate. Bolts of silk and cotton from Earth were very well received on Cimmeria, whose wool was quite welcome on Refuge and to a lesser extent on Earth.

Which led to a marketplace where bolts of cloth, iron tools, the occasional Goa'uld item, the occasional Earth made item or fashion, and a few finished bits of clothing were being gone over.

The clothing choices weren't going to overwhelm the shopping expedition, but you couldn't tell that from the way that Ranma staggered under the load.

* * *

The Goa'uld heavy trooper came on, bullets bouncing off his large hairy chest, his jackal-shaped face sneering in contempt as he flung the members of SG-1 around like dolls.

"Now, for my lord," said the trooper, holding Jack up by the neck and pressing him against the wall. "In the name of Tootandkamenandotherbadstuff, DIE!"

Sam shifted her position on the rubble she was lying on. They just had one chance. Her fingers closed on the cool metal of her pen. "Kalabi-Yau Cascade Effect! Make UP!"

Samantha Carter pirouetted in midair, makeup appearing in place as her normal clothing shifted into a cheerleader's uniform.

"Nice... skirt," commented the still-being-choked Jack.

"Thank you sir, I really don't think it suits me," said Sam. "Though at least I get a lab coat-"

"C-Carter," groaned Jack.

"Oh, right," said Sam, "Love And Beauty Fifty Calibre Machine Gun!"

A large two handed rifle appeared in her hands. She took careful aim and fired.

_BU-BU-BU-BU-BU-BU-BU_ went a stream of little pink hearts from the weapon.

"NO!" cried the trooper as little heart-shaped chunks of his body came bloodlessly off. "My lord Tootandkamenandotherbadstuff! Save your humble servant!"

"Sorry, your call cannot be completed at this time," came a polite female voice from midair. "Please check your number and try again."

"For scientific advancement and the safety of Earth, you're pixie dust!" declared Sailor Scientist, continuing to fire.

"Arrrghhh!" said the trooper, staggering back against first one wall, then another, then finally keeling over.

"Is he dead yet?" asked Teal'c, looking down.

"Not yet," said the trooper.

Sam went up and bashed her gun down.

"Okay, now I'm dead," said the trooper. "I cannot stand against your grasp of scientific principles."(_Gasp! Hack! Expire!_)

A leg spasm from the dead trooper sent a bucket skittering away.

"Good job, Sam," said Daniel, adjusting his glasses. "We've saved another planet."

"Indeed, Captain Carter, you have done well," said Teal'c with an incline of his head.

"Don't your legs get cold?" asked Jack.

"Well done, Major," said General Hammond.

"That's 'Captain' sir," said Carter.

"It's Major now," said General Hammond. "You're being reassigned to Washington where your abilities can keep the capitol safe from various bad guys."

"Thank you... excuse me?" said Major Carter.

"Congratulations on your promotion," said Jack. "And if you accidently blow up a couple of senators and a few other politicians... we can live with that."

"What?" asked Major Carter.

"Indeed," said Teal'c.

"Come on, Sam," said a short skirted Janet Frasier. "To the batpoles!"

"Excuse me?" repeated Major Carter.

"We've got to get to our giant transforming robots and take out the similarly illogical appearance of Godzilla in Washington, he's backing up traffic something awful," said Doctor Frasier.

"What?" asked Major Carter.

"It's better than me, all I get is a cameo role and one stupid line," said PFC Gomer Pyle in the background.

"What?" asked Major Carter.

"On the other hand, we've discovered the Secrets Of The Universe," said Daniel, pointing to a large box marked in big friendly letters: 'Secrets Of The Universe - Please Use Responsibly'.

"Or we could go for what's behind Curtain #3," pointed out Jack, indicating a large curtain with a large number 3, in front of which was some nubile blonde in a gown.

"But I don't want to fight Godzilla in a giant robot, I want to uncover the Secrets Of The Universe," complained Sam as she was hustled along.

"Sam, watch out for that cliff," said Jack.

"What ?!" said Sam as suddenly her footing was gone.

* * *

Sam jumped, her hands clutching the bedsheets. It took a while for her to catch her breath and for the cold sweat to dry on her. "It was a dream? Of course, that's all it was. Just a dream."

"What was?" asked Janet.

"Oh, I just had this dream about..." Sam's voice trailed off. "Things I was studying."

"Ah, hah," said Janet, looking as if she suspected something. "Well, you'd better change, we're heading out to THX-1138 in fifteen minutes."

"We are?" asked Sam.

"Of course," said Janet, holding a glittery metal tube up. "Chloroform Medical Miracle! Planet P2J-991 Power, Make Up!"

* * *

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" yelled Sam, waking up and shaking from reaction. "It was only a dream. Really. This time for sure."

The door burst open, and Doctor Frasier rushed in. "Sam? I heard you scream. What happened?"

"Whatever you do, don't turn into a magical cheerleader," insisted a wild-eyed Sam.

"Right," said the doctor, beginning to back away. Stress. Overwork. Clearly Daniel was right and Captain Carter needed a little break.

* * *

Samantha Carter was a brilliant young woman who had an intellect on a level that could impress people on worlds with higher technological levels than her own. Not many people could manage to comprehend how alien machinery worked to the point of figuring out how to build comparable devices, even if they were only a few, and she'd have help. She was someone who was very skilled in her field, and she was certain that given enough of a chance, she could work around a great many challenges.

And she was being stymied by teenaged girls in tiny skirts.

It wasn't the girls' fault that what they did was something that she couldn't explain. They were laymen using what others had made, and all they cared about was that it worked. Figuring out how their powers worked was her department, though her success rate in that wasn't going to be really registering. About the only short cut in her task would be to bring one in, and study her under lab conditions, which would mean everything from video recordings, to possible invasive procedures.

Rubbing her aching eyes, she tossed that aside outright. There was no way in hell that she was going to do something like that, no matter how tired she was. A few tests would be okay, but she wasn't about to abandon her morals like some Goa'uld. But she _would_ figure it out, no matter how long it took her, and she wouldn't let anything like her having only one hour of sleep in the last forty-eight stop her.

Slapping her hands down on the the tabletop in front of her, she used the loud noise and pain to get herself as awake as she could be, and set herself into reexamining the files again.

* * *

It was something that Maybourne knew would not go over well with a lot of officials, but he didn't care about his technician's apparent oddities. Sure, she liked to cosplay, and tended to have rather strange ideas, but she was _good_ at her job. She could get even the most uninformed politician to understand the sort of stuff that was coming out of the SGC, and that was one of the types of people that they really needed at the moment. It was all fine and dandy when some egghead managed to figure out some alien technology, but if a senator could understand it, they wouldn't get the funding.

And occasionally, she came up with ideas like this one.

"Do you see what I'm talking about, sir?" she asked, pointing out something on the drawing that she'd brought him. "Using the memory metals, we can theoretically create body armor that can be turned on and off at a moment's notice. And it can even be small enough to be... a magical girl's transformation item, like in a show. You think that would be helpful, right?"

He turned to look at her, and smiled. "What do you think?"

* * *

"Aren't ya guys done shoppin' yet?" Ranma asked.

"Tired?" Shion asked.

"Only of luggin' this stuff 'round."

"Well, you'll be able to rest for a while."

"Why's that?"

"They're putting something on at the community center?"

"What? A Jaffa play?"

The scientist shrugged. "Don't know. Why don't we go see?"

He groaned at her words, but still followed along.

* * *

"Sir, a person was just arrested on the mountains surface for attempting an unauthorized entrance," stated the airman.

General Hammond dismissed the concern. "Happens from time to time. Let the police handle him."

"It's a 'her', sir," said the airman. "Major Lowell thought you would want to talk to her yourself."

General Hammond frowned. "Why?"

Samantha Carter silently hoped that whoever "she" was - she did not wear a sailor suit and had absolutely nothing to do with pink hearts and pixie dust.

The Airman glanced at Captain Carter, who seemed to be praying. "Err. Sir, she knew the Stargate was here."

* * *

"I do not understand this activity," said Kos-mos, her red eyes staring at the screen.

"Uhm, well," said Shion, trying to figure out how to explain this.

"It's an American anime," said Minako. "It's funny."

"I dunno, I thought it was some kinda weird martial arts training," said Ranma. "That's kinda like some of the stuff my Pop has used as training exercises."

"Rabbit season," proclaimed Daffy Duck on the screen.

"Duck season," countered Bugs Bunny, also on the screen.

"Martial arts training?" asked Kos-mos, turning towards Ranma as this was at least something she could understand. She was still uncertain about the whole 'shopping' thing.

"Anything can be martial arts training," said Ranma with all the authority a fourteen year old boy could manage.

"I really don't think that's it," said Hotaru, wincing as Elmer Fudd used a shotgun on a little black duck.

Shion decided to try something. "It's a metaphor."

"Huh?" asked Ranma, Hotaru, and Minako. Kos-mos merely looked faintly confused.

"Daffy represents the basic animalistic urges of the self-indulgent psyche, whereas Bugs Bunny is a more thoughtful and rational individual, and the conflict between the two is indicative of the basic conflicts in a society," tried Shion.

Kos-mos turned her attention to the screen again. "And the bulbous-headed human with the projectile weapon?"

"The consciousness choosing a path between the two," stated Shion.

Minako glanced at the screen, then at Shion. "I think I preferred the 'martial arts training' explanation."

* * *

Genma wasn't a big letter writer, so he obtained help from a recent Japanese arrival in this little exercise.

Dearest Nodoka,  
We continue our training journey within a military base of the Americans. This is why some details of this may be censored. I wanted to let you know that Ranma proceeds to become a 'man among men' and that he is *********** with the ********. The pictures of him shopping in ********** are with four girls as you can see. One is ******** and his fiancee, her martial arts style uses a weapon called a glaive. The others are a scientist/chaperone named **** ****** and a girl named ****** **** who also seems interested in Ranma. The third one is ******* and she's * ********* weapon developed by ***** ********** for the purpose of defending against ****** *****.

Ranma's training is coming along very well. He has already mastered the basics and some of the advanced techniques of the Saotome School, plus the ********* and the basics of the ************. He is now training in the **********. As far as fighting skills go, he is a world-class fighter at least and we've found fighting opponents he doesn't have to hold back against - so his skills will continue to grow.

As he will be working with four attractive girls often on his own, often ******** or ********, his training in ********** techniques should progress quite rapidly and he should be quite good by the time we're done here.

Sincerely,  
Genma Saotome

* * *

General Hammond, Jack, and Daniel entered the storeroom to face a regal-seeming redheaded woman.

"Ma'am, I'm General Hammond, US Air Force," stated the General.

"Yes," said the woman, apparently accepting that.

"And you are?" pressed the General.

"We are Hathor," stated the woman. "You would be wise to unbind us and kneel before your goddess."

Jack snorted. "Hello."

Daniel Jackson held up a hand. "Hathor?"

The woman nodded. "Yes." Humans certainly didn't seem to have gotten any more intelligent in the millenia of her containment.

"You've heard of her?" asked Jack to Daniel.

Daniel nodded. "Hathor was the Egyptian goddess of fertility, inebriety, and music."

Jack nodded at that. "Ah. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Gotcha."

"In a manner of speaking," said Daniel. "Are the cuffs really necessary?"

"She's not going to whip some little wand or something out of nowhere and hit us with some whammy, is she?" asked Jack.

"Uhm, no. I think I would have noticed if there were depictions of Hathor in a figure-skating costume," said Daniel.

Hathor raised an eyebrow elegantly. What WERE these primitives talking about? Well, it didn't matter.

* * *

The remote arms swung away and then folded in on themselves in the repair bay. Though designed for repairing and upgrading the BOLO, the BOLO could use them in other ways when needed. Such as now.

It had overheard the comment of the one named Jackoneil. Therefore it was a nice shade of red. Not very good for camouflage, of course, but it should be sufficient for the purposes thereof.

If one were to look at a Death Glider, and then back at this, they would recognize design elements but it wouldn't be an exact match by any means. This was partly because the BOLO had also watched several movies from the Tau'ri world and had lifted design aspects directly from a pair of movies.

The first movie had been "Star Wars IV: A New Hope" while the second movie had been "Macross-The Movie". The result was something that looked vaguely like an X-wing crossed with an Valkyrie Fighter. One Death Glider cannon extended from each of the four wings and tied into a targetting helmet that the pilot could use. It could not transform, the BOLO couldn't see an advantage to a giant humanoid form and trying to give it that ability would degrade armor and manueverability.

The problem was that the Death Gliders were not designed for travel through the Stargates. If they had FTL, that would not be a significant problem. That they did not meant that their usefulness was very limited.

On the other hand, the other project being worked on could fit through Stargates and might just interest the Tau'ri.

* * *

"Yeeesh," said Ranma, sitting back and regarding the argument. It wasn't like it took itself seriously.

#Hey, Ranma, I got that stuff you were asking for. Are you sure about this?#

Ranma practically lit up as Bonaparte approached. "Yeah. I kinda saw the need for havin' a weapon on that last world. Something I can use to block attacks and damage stuff. Hitting that armor plating kinda hurt."

#Yeah, but wouldn't a gun be better?#

"Mebbee, some of the time," admitted Ranma, checking out the new equipment. Weight was a little heavier than he expected but he could adapt. It was the material he had spotted, and that stuff was something he hadn't been able to dent or ding at all. "On the other hand, with _this_ I know martial arts manuevers that I can use. I don't have to invent martial arts manuevers, just adapt 'em. And, hey, if my school of martial arts is good at anything - it's adapting."

* * *

Auron stood back in the shadows, the aged Jaffa letting the young people get on with their young concerns. After you'd passed a few centuries, a lot of these concerns faded somewhat.

Besides, unless they ran across a supply of symbiotes - this would be the last time the Jaffa would possess such a thing. It didn't hurt that some of the goings on were so - amusing.

Yes, that had been something missing for awhile. Apophis had not encouraged amusing in his worshippers.

The team dynamics were obvious enough, though things seemed to swirl around that Tau'ri representitive.

Wakka was everything you might expect from a sportsman. Tall, strong, powerful, athletic. Not a Jaffa in that he lacked a symbiote. Past thirty years, all he'd really known before was the ballgame he'd excelled at - and that had been diminishing in popularity for at least a century. He seemed to have adopted the young Tau'ri as a sort of protege.

Lulu took the opposite view from Wakka. She didn't particularly trust or like Tidus, at least at first. Since their deployment and they'd taken that job aboard that freighter - things had thawed ever so slightly.

Rikku had been a bit flirty with the Tau'ri, but everyone suspected that was simply because the Tau'ri had gadgetry enough to fascinate the repairer. Now that they were on a ship of Goa'uld construction, she was less interested in the Tau'ri and more on that transport.

Which left things to develop between Yuna and Tidus. Hence the amusement.

It seemed that some things did not change over the centuries between the Tau'ri splitting off from those that had settled Chulak. There was a language barrier to overcome, but a smile was a smile and a glance still a glance.

Auron hoped the two would get together before they acquired a tel'tac. He had a bet going, after all.

* * *

Mamoru Chiba considered the letter. First year university student, working odd jobs, now this weird stuff going on at night. This was something different - a job offer. He certainly couldn't deny needing the money. Even an old apartment in Juuban and Cup Ramen ate into what he could make washing dishes and carrying loads.

The letter was simple and straightforward. Part-time work helping in research for the JSDF. Other than the confidentiality agreement, it wasn't that unusual as far as terms or conditions. Pay was more than twice what he would get out of his usual temp assignments. There were definite benefits to this arrangement - a steady paycheck and the ability to work around special projects since they made specific allowance for such.

The only sticking points were the training period (though that was paid - which lessened the hurt) and the confidentiality agreement.

* * *

The only sticking points were the training period (though that was paid - which lessened the hurt) and the confidentiality agreement. That meant that he should consider working for the JSDF. What could it hurt, after all? Besides, sniper training would provide him with some stories to tell later on when he would get a real job. It wasn't exactly a bad thing to do, as it would give him all sorts of options that he didn't have. It'd be better to be able to have a set schedule, since that would allow him to both study without worrying about which temp job he was working that day, and would let him actually get some actual sleep time, even with the strange night time stuff that he had going on. Plus, he'd be able to have the job on his resume, which would mean possibly good results once he went for his start in his career.

Besides, Mamoru knew that this was an opportunity for him to be able to at least get some access to things that could help him figure out if anything from his dreams should actually do more than give him all those concerns. If something really troublesome should happen, he wanted to be able to face it with some sort of tools on hand that could actually solve what his dilemma was. Right now, it might be just seeing some strange girl when he was sleeping, but something about it made him certain that there was more going on than he knew about.

And he really wanted to know just _who_ that princess was....

* * *

Rei tried walking along the street without seeming to have any problems. However, the stiff way that she was holding her shoulders, and the scowl on her face belied any attempt that she could muster. That meant that she was stuck doing a fast march as she went past the various other pedestrians.

Finally, she couldn't take it any more, and whirled on the cause of her annoyance as soon as she could be certain that they'd be alone. "What do you think that you're doing?!"

"I am supposed to make certain that each of you is safe," Sosuke answered calmly, even though she'd just grabbed his shirt collar. "As Miss Tsukino is in detention, and Miss Mizuno is in her cram class, they are both stationary, and can be watched by those teams that were set up for such situations. On the other hand, you are roaming the city streets, which means that you need someone who can keep up with you."

"I don't 'need' anything! And I'm not roaming! I was shopping!"

"For a great many items, many of which will not help you with your mission."

"'Items'?"

"Such as the clothing that you chose. Skirts do not protect against the elements as well as pants, and satin is not very helpful either."

"'Satin'.... You were there when I was shopping for _bras_?!" the raven haired girl screeched as her eyes shot open.

"I was well positioned to keep out of the way, and still observe you."

"How could you?! That's... that's...."

"My assigned mission. Despite where I might have to go, I am supposed to blend in and protect you."

"You stick out like... like... a boy in a girls' locker room! Just what sort of boy are you?! Don't you know anything about living in Japan?!"

"Not particularly," he replied.

"Eh?"

"During my childhood, I grew up in a great many military hot spots, including Afghanistan during the war against the Soviets. This is the nation of my birth, but my missions have kept me far from here. However, I do not believe that will have an adverse affect on my performance of my duties."

"You... grew up in wars?"

"I grew up fighting them."

Letting go of his shirt, she sighed. "At least that explains something."

"It does."

"Yeah. Why you're such an idiot."

* * *

"Well, let's see," O'Neill commented dryly. "She comes up to a military base, and starts talking about things that are supposed to be ancient tall tales. I'd think that it'd be better if the cuffs stay on anyway."

"Come on. What's she going to do? Slap us silly?" Daniel retorted.

"First off, when strange people come visiting, it's usually a good idea to stay cautious. And second? Hello? Possible crazy person. I've seen guys who couldn't handle things go nuts. Ain't a pretty sight, even with bare hands."

"Well..."

"Let's leave them on, for the time being at least," Hammond commented.

"Sir?"

"Doctor Jackson, I understand your feelings, but I agree with the colonel. We know that there are reasons for being at least a little cautious."

"Slippery slimy creepies, mean little girls in skating outfits, and the thing that ate Pittsburg," Jack murmured.

"Ah. If you think that she's such a _big_ danger...." the archeologist said in a tone that sounded like he didn't agree for a moment.

"Just consider it a temporary thing, until we can figure out what's what here."

"If you say so."

"So Ms Hathor, would you mind telling us why exactly you were trying to get into this facility?" the General asked.

"We were drawn to the Chaapa-ai," Hathor answered with as much dignity as she could manage at the moment.

"'Chaapa-ai'? That's what your monk buddies on Chulak call the Stargate," the colonel whispered to his friend.

Daniel nodded. "Um, yes. It's also Abydonian and ancient Egyptian."

The three men looked at each other, and then at Hathor.

* * *

The negotiations were tougher than they really needed to be, and it was because of two major factors.

A) It was known that the Bolo really wanted to know about things dealing with the ancient Enemy of his Creators, now pretty much nailed down as the evil sailor-suit girls.  
B) The NID, SGC, USAF, etc - were all reluctant to allow even an ally like the BOLO to place an operative in a foreign country.

The BOLO finally won by shooting off a few schematics detailing how the Tau'ri could build a handheld scanning device which promised to have some interesting uses in the field.

The new operative in town arrived fifteen minutes after the negotiations had commenced. Other than those who knew of that identity, observers simply saw a dog.

* * *

Mamoru Chiba knew something was up. His grades weren't exactly poor but they also weren't incredible. He had a wide variety of interests, but nothing he specialized in. Research also wasn't something he put together with the JSDF.

"Ah, Mister Chiba," said one of the black-suited men standing outside the building. "Excellent. May I see your signed non-disclosure form?"

Mamoru handed it over and looked over the sterile little room. Hardly what he had expected. Maybe the other door led to a lab or something?

The man who took the form smiled and nodded as he glanced over the pages, checking that each line had been initialed and finally signed at the end. "Good, good. You understand the penalties for revealing what is about to be shown you?"

"Yes, I understand those, though not the reason," said Mamoru. "So you're doing some kind of weapon research here?"

"In a moment," said the black-suited figure, adjusting his tie before pressing a button next to the door.

The doors slid open, revealing an even smaller room.

"An elevator?" asked Mamoru, wanting confirmation.

"Yes, sir," said the man, still not giving a name. The doors closed and the elevator lurched down. "This was all recently excavated and built, even on the base there are only a handful of people allowed anywhere near here."

"Well, that sounds interesting," said Mamoru. The doors slid open. "What the?!"

_!_ went an electrical beam as it slammed into something that looked like armor plating.

Lasers hummed as beams were sent towards targets.

"Right, let's see what happens if we use the yoma-field-emulator," said a figure in a labcoat, throwing a large knife switch.

"What?!" asked Mamoru, trying to get a handle on all the activity going on.

_beep beep chiuuuuuuu!_ went a snakelike pistol as it sent a blast towards a target.

"This way, please, Mister Chiba," said the black suited figure, apparently ignoring everything going on around him.

* * *

It was largely staged, of course. The briefing that Chiba would undergo later was of thoroughly unbelievable things and therefore setting up for him to have viewed alien technologies on the way in would help to overcome that initial disbelief. He'd be able to fit things together without having to overcome that initial shock, which he was already trying to come to terms with.

It wasn't like a lot of people coming into this project didn't already have problems with various aspects.

Of course, if he'd seen the large shape concealed under the sheets, it would have likely been too much at once for him.

* * *

Hathor ignored the other Goa'uld in their cages. Minor beings of little consequence. When she had her Jaffa and her minions and this planet was strong in Goa'uld loyal to her, she would give them the option of serving her at that time. For now, let them cool their heels as the balance of power shifted.

That so much of their technology had fallen into the hands of these humans was handy, and she was a little surprised at how much headway they were making in adapting it for their own use.

It was all very much at odds from what she had expected.

* * *

"Captain Carter, what are you doing?" asked Janet Frasier.

The captain didn't look up from her work on the computer. "Have you noticed how all the men on the base are acting?"

Relief briefly showed on Janet's face. "Yes! Thank you! You noticed that too?"

"It all seems to be tied in to the arrival of this Hathor person or whatever she is," said Captain Carter. "I'm researching her right now on the net."

"What have you found?" asked the physician.

"This is really Daniel's field so I'm kinda starting from scratch. This one academic's web page theorises that a bunch of the sex goddesses from different cultures were actually the same woman - Hathor. The Greeks identified her with Aphrodite. There's Ishtar of Babylon, Astarte of Syria, Ceres of Rome."

She might have been thinking something about the sound of a strumpet playing, but she kept that to herself. "Sounds like she got around."

Carter seemed to agree with the unvoiced comment. "Yeah, in most mythology. And she's pretty loved in all of it, except for a late period in ancient Egypt where according to one of the stories, she was sent by Ra to destroy mankind. And then he changed his mind and they became enemies."

The doctor nodded. "So when she says she's Ra's enemy she may not be lying?"

"Yeah, but here's the interesting thing. According to the stories, this woman had magical powers over men," said Carter, an idle thought occurring to her. If she could just get a sample of this stuff. "She was supposed to be able to seduce them into doing anything for her. In almost every case, it describes them as 'drunk with her presence'."

Again the doctor nodded. "Well that would be how I'd describe our boys. Concentration is down, seems to have some effect on their motor skills and coordination."

"Yeah. Now I figure she's using some form of Goa'uld technology. Any ideas?" Captain Carter had a few of her own, but wanted to hear confirmation.

"My guess would be some sort of chemical we've never seen, a sort of super pheromones combined with something like Sodium Pentothal. Probably airborne delivery," said Janet, thinking about it. "It can't be too widespread, we've recently upgraded our chemical scanners and they'd have gone off it was something that could saturate the complex. Something like a perfume that doesn't spread too far from the source."

"Great," said Carter, thinking that if it was at least short range airborne - if they could stop the source they could stop the spread. "How do we reverse it in the men?"

"May not be reversible. And if it is, it may take years." Janet looked thoughtful about that. Simple chemicals might wear out after a few hours or days. If it lingered in the system like some drugs or a virus?

"We probably don't even have days before this Goa'uld does whatever it is she's trying to do," said Carter.

"So what do you suggest, Captain?" asked Janet, willing to concede authority in what was clearly more in the other woman's field of expertise.

"I suggest we neutralise her," said Carter.

"Should we contact Refuge? We might need Hotaru and her friend on this." Janet raised an eyebrow at how Sam took that. Almost as if she'd been physically slapped.

It was a difficult thing. Honestly, it grated on her sensibilities. On the other hand, their assistance in this matter might be needed. "No. Let's try to do this quickly and quietly without involving them."

* * *

Refuge had no idea that something was going wrong at the base.

#What do you mean transfer to the combat unit?#

"Look, we know you and your 'big brother' both want you to go exploring new worlds, and you will - but you're just not built for exploring several of the sites we've seen recently," explained Professor Tomoe. "You're big and you're heavy and you've got thick armor. No matter how you cut it, there's no way you can even fit into some of the buildings we've seen."

#What of our agreement?# came from one of the speakers, the voice vaguely mechanical and far more adult than Bonaparte's.

"It is still in effect," explained Professor Tomoe. "SG-V will mainly be deployed at sites where we have need of a fighting presence - such as when we need to provide a perimeter defense for a scientific team or for when we go in on a Search & Rescue. In the former case, that means more data on these alien worlds. In the latter, well, Bonaparte's talents in that regard will be a valuable commodity. There are still restrictions on where he can and can't go, but in the main he should be fine. With Kos-Mos joining SG-X, we have firepower and someone who won't necessarily spook primitive locals the way Bonaparte will do."

#Awwwwwwwwwwww#

"Besides, unlike General Hammond's group - our units will be more flexible," pointed out Professor Tomoe. "We'll have members moving from one group to another based on findings from the MALP."

* * *

Zoicite had a plan.

This, in and of itself, was not a particularly new development. He was a Dark General, and therefore having a sinister plan of one sort or another was perfectly normal.

It was the situation that was different. Jadite had apparently been killed by Earth soldiers, which merely proved how stupid and lazy the other General had been. So Zoicite had to eliminate these magical girls, then the Earth soldiers would prove easy pickings. It would be relatively simple - get the girls where the soldiers could not follow.

Looking over the building in question, Zoicite thought this would work quite handily.

* * *

Things were progressing nicely by Hathor's regard, as she was certain that her position would be nicely settled soon enough. Her new base was secured by those who might once have fought against her. Those who could still pose a threat were not aware of the threat coming up beneath their noses. And the only individuals on the base were in custody.

She did have to hand it to the women, as it was clear that not only the males of this simple species were headstrong. They, at least, had enough sense to realize that their situation was going to be changing, but since they were unaware of the extent of her power, they'd been too quick in their actions. In the end, it had been their own men who had taken them prisoner.

That showed where the loyalty of the men, _her_ men, were, as each of the male slaves was completely within her control. Not a single one of them was able to shake off her control, and that was exactly the way that it should be. They wouldn't dream of doing anything that she did not desire that they do.

But that did not mean that they were not desiring to do things on their own. Being male, they had natural urges, and as such, they could be moved by instinct. Normally, that would not be a problem at all, as they were quite useful that way, since her touch managed to enthrall them quite well. However, the same way that she managed to control them made them libidinous, and she had been totally aware of the eyes of her future Jaffa on her. It was understandable, as her host body was that of an attractive woman, and being the creatures of primal urges that they were, the men would naturally desire to seek pleasure in her arms. Of course, that was not something that she would deny herself, as she could use a handsome slave to bring her pleasure, or for other things. Not that they'd press her for it, as they would not dare demean their goddess in that way. But they had needs, and at the moment, they were bearing heightened libidos, with no means to express it....

However, when she considered the fact that they needed women, she realized that she had a ready supply available. Certainly, those who would attack their goddess deserved no better, as it was traitorous in the extreme. They would not be missed, as their tasks could be handled by others. Some were quite attractive, and she knew that the males likely had some sort of preference. Perhaps they would make a good reward, as the chance to relieve the need would be welcome. She had little care for the women's sensitivities, as the desires and emotions of lesser beings were nearly meaningless to someone like her, as they were merely another tool to get her the results that she wanted. And if they were to breed more slaves to service her, then so much the better.

* * *

"Okay.... As Jack would say, 'this sucks'," Janet grumbled as she sat in the holding room.

Carter sighed and pressed her lips together. "How were we to know that she had all the men on the base in her grubby little hands...."

"It was a possibility."

"Yeah, but she got us good. Having the guys ambush us like that...."

"Luckily, it seems that she wants us alive for some reason. Not that I'm sure that I'll like the reason. But at least it can't be worse than what we've seen."

"I'm not sure what...." Sam began, but then trailed off as she felt something akin to cold fingers running up her spine, and saw that the other women had similar sensations. "Why do I get the feeling that this isn't good?"

"Probably because it isn't. More than likely, I should have kept my mouth shut."

"No problem. Remember it was my idea to go at this alone."

"Trust me. I'll do that."

"Gee. Thanks."

* * *

The shipment was a usual one from Refuge, and as it was both scheduled, and had the proper authorization codes, it was allowed through. A motorized platform, which was essentially just a MALP base without any of the usual equipment on it, came through with only the normal words of communication going on between those who sent it and the SGC. Neither side was seeming to be out of character, and it was done with after only a few moments.

But the Gate was open long enough for the BOLO's new unit to get through, and hide before anyone had been able to see that it had arrived. Almost as soon as it materialized in the Gate Room, it had detected that something was amiss. Its sensors found an agent in the air, and immediately determined that there was no regular use for having it there. That meant that something was wrong, and it began to work with the upmost caution.

So, when the chance came up, it darted out into the hallway, and started a search for more information.

* * *

The German Shepherd sniffed the air as he trotted through the Gate room. Chemicals were analyzed. An ear cocked. Eyes looked to the various guards and began scanning through multiple spectrums.

Interesting.

* * *

Mamoru Chiba looked over the thing being assembled and felt the urge to whistle.

"Yes, it is kind of interesting, isn't it?" said Uematsu. "The original device was called a 'Death Glider' but naturally the people upstairs thought that name didn't really have a lot of appeal. I mean it isn't a glider, and the whole 'death' motif is really not in keeping with the principles of either the American forces or Japanese sensibilities."

"Well, it's a weapon, weapons kill," said Mamoru, a little uneasily.

"Yet it is the purpose of the person holding the scalpel that determines whether it is used as a tool for life or to end it," agreed Uematsu. "When one can save many lives by eliminating the threat to them - is it the moral choice to eliminate that threat or allow it to continue? An argument that many have waged for generations uncounted."

Mamoru blinked, this being a little deeper than he'd been expecting. "You're a soldier, right?"

"Not in the sense you mean, Mister Chiba," said Uematsu. "There are wars that are fought openly, and wars that are not so obvious. Actually I find this sort of atmosphere... refreshing."

Mamoru stared at the blacksuited figure, wondering again exactly what he'd gotten himself into.

"You see we've added to the rear a coupling," pointed out Uematsu. "Tessa came up with that. We can attach a troop carrier, or a winch and towing mechanism, or a large rear-facing gun, or any number of things. She felt having some measure of transformation would be a nicely Japanese touch."

Mamoru nodded. Okay. He could see that. Sort of.

"Now, Mister Chiba, we have sniper practice arranged. If you'd come this way?"

* * *

"Now, Mister Jedite, coffee?"

"No thank you, I'm fine," indicated Jedite, making a gesture with a donut.

"You understand the position you're in?"

"I've got a bit of a headache, but I've got the basics," indicated Jedite. "I was a soldier corrupted by Beryl, forced to do all sorts of nasty things, stuck in a sub-dimensional stasis for an ungodly amount of time, then sent out to supervise youma in an attempt to take over Earth, except that you've repeatedly shot me with those zat guns and apparently disrupted the mind control - I've mentioned this in detail and given you what details I can remember through the fog that my memories seem to have developed. Am I missing anything?"

"No, I think you've covered the major salient points. We can't let you loose since the mind control might be resumed at any point, even if we believe your story completely."

"Well then, since I've been abused, mind-raped, and used like a disposable tissue by some spoiled little princess turned Dark Queen," began Jedite, "how's this? I give you information. You give me revenge. Do we have a deal?"

"I believe we may be able to do business, Mister Jedite."

* * *

K-9 followed the chemical trail. Eyes scanned and noted anomalies and categorized them. Then he did something that had been one of the upgrades built into him. Sensors determined what his background was and projected a holographic field. It wasn't a perfect camouflage, but as long as he didn't move when anyone was looking directly at him - he tended to blend into the background. The surveillance cameras were even easier.

Another shipment going to Refuge allowed him to send a brief message, encoded in a high speed burst.

#Possible 'Foothold' situation. Indication of abnormal behavior in Cheyenne Mountain. Unable to locate Captain Carter. Sending information on unknown chemical compound in atmosphere.#

The reply came just before the wormhole was cut off again. #Acknowledged. Action will follow analysis.#

* * *

"Which one do you want?" asked Airman 1.

"Oh I don't know, they're all kinda nice," said Airman 2.

"What are you talking about?" asked Captain Carter of the two at the door.

"Hathor has stated a new incentive program," said Airman 1. "Those who serve her exceptionally well gain exceptional rewards."

"GAK!" said Samantha Carter, immediately and correctly deciphering that.

The Airmen turned a smile towards the prisoners, not a nice smile, and went back to their positions.

"This is not good at all. It must be a pretty powerful drug Hathor's using. Colonel O'Neill is Special Forces trained to fight mind control techniques and I'd never expect Airman Jones to act like that," said Captain Carter.

Janet Frasier shrugged. "Well, somehow I doubt that Goa'uld pheromone techniques were considered."

"Yeah," said Captain Carter. "Well Mama said there'd days like this."

Doctor Fraiser cocked an eyebrow. "Really? My ex-husband said 'Are you outta your mind honey-buns? There is a reason they call it this man's army.'"

"'This man's army?'" asked Carter. "Your husband actually said that?"

"Yeah," responded Janet, "so of course I explained to him it wasn't the Army, it was the Air Force and they've had women for decades."

"Doesn't seem like the sort of guy I'd expect you to spend time with," said Carter. Janet simply shrugged at that, so Sam continued. "Man! Maybe it's just me, but I can't figure out how to feel like one of the guys with these guys. You know what I mean? I always feel like I'm 'the girl'. Now Hathor's planning on passing us around to relieve sexual tension in a decidedly non-regulation manner."

Janet winced at the pun, then brightened. "That's it."

"What's it?" asked Sam.

Janet inclined her head towards the door. "You just gave me an idea on how to get us out of here. Look if Hathor's control drug is hormone driven like I suspect, that means she's making the men libidinous."

"Okay, why do I get the feeling I don't like where this is going?" Samantha Carter didn't look happy about this development. "You're not suggesting -"

* * *

K-9 remained hidden, still analyzing and recording data.

"Sir, we're receiving a signal. It's Refuge, they state Miss Aino left some materials behind in her room that she needs."

"Materials?" asked General Hammond.

Siler nodded. "Homework."

"Kids," said General Hammond, smirking. "Very well. Keep an eye on her though. We can't let her interfere with Miss Hathor's plans."

"Opening iris, sending all clear," said Siler.

Minako entered, followed by Shion, Hotaru, and a silver-haired girl.

The silver haired girl's eyes swept the room dispassionately, assessing threat potentials.

"Remember, these guys can't help themselves," said Shion in a low volume to her companions.

"I don't understand most of this," confessed Hotaru.

* * *

Hathor flipped through the booklet, more bored than amused until she came to a single picture. She said something.

Daniel was shocked that his goddess knew language like that.

"There are ones like this here?" asked Hathor, pointing to the picture.

"There are two in Refuge," said Daniel, seeing that it was a photo of the 'Don't Fear The Reaper' picture.

"Let no one from this 'Refuge' arrive here," said Hathor in her "snake" voice. "They are demons who must be eradicated as soon as they appear."

"Well, I don't know about calling them 'demons'," hedged Daniel.

"They are among the most dangerous and ruthless creatures in the galaxy," said Hathor. "Thousands of worlds have fallen to them, all life destroyed. I named them 'demons', my beloved, and that is what they are."

"Well, I suppose we can tell Refuge there's a problem with the vibration suppression system, and that we have to take our Stargate offline for awhile," suggested Daniel. "That way they won't be suspicious."

"Excellent, my beloved," said Hathor. "I see I have chosen wisely."

* * *

"Miss Aino," General Hammond said genially as he came up to meet the new arrivals. "We didn't expect to see you back so soon."

"Well... You know me. I'm like a bad quarter," the blonde replied, rubbing the back of her head as she forced out a laugh.

Hotaru frowned. "I thought that it was a 'bad penny'."

"Oh, something like that."

"Ah. Okay."

"_Any_way, I need to get those assignments," Minako said brightly. "My Mom and Dad think that I came here to go to school, so..."

"But do you need four people to do it?" Hammond asked.

"Not really, but you know us girls. Just like to get together, and hang around."

"That's true. Some of them go to the bathroom together," muttered an airman.

"Eww. Anyway, Hotaru wanted to stop by and say 'hi', and that made Shion want to see where I'd been staying. And since our friend here goes where we go."

"Your 'friend'?" Siler asked.

"Oh, yes."

"We'd make introductions if we could, but we don't have a lot of time," Shion informed the men.

The general frowned at her. "You're in that much of a hurry?"

"I'm sorry about this."

"About what?"

"This," the scientist replied, and used the activated zat that she'd snuck out on him, making him drop to the floor.

The other soldiers began to raise their guns at the four females, but there was one problem with that strategy.

Kos-Mos was already moving. She crouched down, and dashed forward, taking the men by surprise with her speed. By the time that any of them realized just how quick she was, a third of them were unconscious, and the others were hard pressed to manage much else. They weren't ready for a sentient combat android to start attacking them.

And that gave the two girls of the group an opportunity to transform into their magical girl forms. They moved quickly as well, with Shion zapping guys from a hiding spot, and before anyone could think to close the blast doors, they were out and into the control room. Normally, these trained professionals would have little to worry about in dealing with teenaged girls.

"Sailor V Kick!"

But then, they usually didn't have to handle those same girls having super powers that could severely hurt them.

Shion came out when the fighting had stopped, and she moved quickly with Kos-Mos up to meet with the younger girls. "Okay, this is good. It looks like they weren't able to hit any alarms."

"It's just so bad that we had to hurt them," Sailor V sighed.

"It couldn't be helped."

"Now what?"

"'Now', we take the Gate off line for the time being, so that this way whoever is in charge of this mess won't be able to use it. Don't want them calling out for reinforcements."

Kos-Mos turned her attention to the scientist. "We may have difficulty in preventing the men from wishing to impede us."

"We'll just have to lock them up. In the mean time, we'll have other things to do."

Both girls nodded at her words, and the android merely gave off the sense that she understood.

* * *

"You know using seduction wasn't in any of the training manuals I've ever read," Carter muttered as she shifted around a bit uncomfortably.

Janet gave her a level look. "What, you think the Pentagon anticipated a 4000 year old alien walking onto a base and drugging all the men to make them...."

"'Libidinous'?"

"Yeah."

"I suppose they do train us to take advantage of the enemy's weakness," the captain sighed.

"Exactly."

"Well then, let's do this."

The doctor merely shrugged, and headed over to where the door was now closed. She hit it several times, even she looked if she looked like she'd rather not. "Airman, open up! We've got something for you."

"What?" grunted one of their guards.

"Why don't you come in here and see for yourself?"

"No can do. We only take orders from Hathor, and she has decided that you will be rewards for good service."

"Boys, there are five of us, and we're very alone and afraid...."

"Why do I feel like I'm in a women-behind-bars movie?" Sam muttered under her breath.

Her friend glared lightly at her, but continued on, opening her shirt as another woman took of her jacket. "You know, we might be able to do with some reassurance."

"Don't worry. You're already considered prizes," the second guard told them.

"We are, are we?"

"Definitely. There's already a betting pool on who'll get Captain Carter."

That made the named woman blink. "I'm being betted on?"

"Of course."

"I don't know whether I should be feeling honored or demeaned."

"Either way, a guy might want to check up on what he'd be getting," Janet suggested.

"Oh?" said the first airman.

"Sure. We do need some reassurance...."

"Is that so?"

"Most definitely."

"Well then, we don't want Hathor's gifts to us be lost," the guard commented, as he opened the door, signalling his partner to come in. He went over and kissed Janet, while the other one went over to a smiling Sam.

However, any lusts were not returned as the blonde elbowed the man approaching her in the face. The one sharing a liplock with Janet was yanked off of her by another woman, and got shoved against a wall. Their weapons were taken by Sam, who looked over to her friend. "Feel like a woman, Doc?"

"Oh yeah," Fraiser answered, wiping at her lips with her sleeve.

"Let's tie them up."

The other women nodded, and they got to work.

* * *

Hathor frowned, though she was careful not to frown at her Chosen.

This girl in the picture reminded her of one of the demons of which Ra had spoken long long ago when she had been his Queen, over 4000 years ago. Ra had explained that there were things which had worried even him with all the power at his command, and one of those images shown her had been of a woman dressed just like that.

The main advantage, Ra had stated, was that these Para-sail Demons didn't have spaceships nor did they use the Stargate for some reason. They used their own method, which took years at best and millenia at worst to traverse the distances between the stars.

Their threat was real. Hundreds of worlds were out there, destroyed by these 'senshi.' More ruthless, more wasting of resources, more cruel than even the Goa'uld. Able to utilize some mind control mechanism that also empowered their thralls and sent them on waves of destruction before the individual simply burned out. Ra had called these unwilling recruits _farces_ after a comment overheard on the one world he'd encountered them.

That world had been one of his strongholds. A world that had been armed and armored, surrounded by forceshields, containing both a fleet and an arsenal that was the envy of the other System Lords.

It had, Ra informed her, all come to naught. The Demons had converted many of his loyal subjects to such level of mind control that even the strongest Jaffa had been willing to wear a silly outfit that he could have sworn they wouldn't have been caught dead in prior to that control.

He had escaped through the Stargate as his fortress world had fallen. When he returned later, the world was a dead cinder like many of the others in the Third Spiral Arm that he had seen previously.

Worlds where not even grass would grow. Worlds where the ruins of mighty cities poked out of wind-swept sand and even the bitter air felt lifeless. Worlds where even the First Ones seemed to weaken within minutes of emergence.

"So these others like Hotaru are bad people?" asked Daniel Jackson.

Hathor startled at that, not having been aware she had been speaking aloud. "My love, if Ra felt fear at contemplating these Demons, they are not to be underestimated."

* * *

A German Shepherd had been chosen as the form for the initial unit. As resources began trickling in, and a decent dog book was scanned, other units were planned. These would not be in a single location, but scattered where they could explore and send back data.

A new MALP, a nonsentient mobile sensor/communications device, was being designed.

The Enemy was out there, somewhere. If the two girls were part of a force cut off from the original Enemy, that was fine for them but their survival indicated that the Enemy had also likely survived.

Hotaru's abilities were alarming viewed as an indication of what an Enemy might be capable of. Information from the factory world was coming in, and it did not look good. The BOLO assessed its own chances against such an enemy and determined that this was a fight it was ill-fitted to wage. Its weapons, while devastating, were not built to surgically strike a single humanoid much less one that could teleport or move at the sort of speeds indicated by those accessed records.

More research and development was needed.

* * *

"NO!" called out Shion, seeing what Kos-mos was about to do.

"Eliminating enemy units now will greatly increase probability of achieving mission objective," said Kos-mos.

"They're under mind control, they are allies!" insisted Shion. "Don't be so quick to pass judgement, Kos-mos!"

"I am merely ready to act in an efficient manner whereby primary programming goals are reached," replied the combat android.

"Where'd she get the gatling guns?" asked Sailor Venus.

"Never mind that, just get moving," suggested Shion. "First we figure out what's doing this. Then we eliminate the problem. K-9?"

The dog faded into visibility. Oddly enough, he had a German accent when he spoke. "I haff found zat ze base is being controlled from the physical therapy area. Captain Carter and Doktor Fraiser haff been constrained in a holding cell two floors up."

"First we eliminate the control mechanism. THEN we rescue everyone," said Shion.

Kos-mos stared unblinkingly for a moment, then dismissed the weapons. "Switching to taser punches and zat'nik'tel emulation routine."

* * *

Captain Samantha Carter hefted the weapon in her hand and reflected that an assault rifle was quite enough "magic" for her, thank you very much. "Lieutenant Moon, Doctor? If you'll take the left. Teal'c, you're with me. We'll lead."

"Fine with me," said Doctor Fraiser.

Teal'c merely walked in.

Jack was on the floor next to a bath in which shapes roiled.

"Larvae?" asked Lieutenant Moon.

"Hide," said Sam, seeing something moving under the water that was not a larvae.

Hathor emerged from the water and moved closer to Jack. "Do not worry, child. You will soon receive your Goa'uld, and then you will begin to feel strong again."

Sam looked over at Janet. Janet looked back at Sam. Teal'c frowned ever so slightly.

Hathor opened Jack's shirt. "The strongest of the larvae will soon find your womb and move into it. At that time you will begin your service to us. Enjoy."

Watching Hathor leave, the women came out of their hidden positions.

"Let's get him out of there," said Samantha.

Teal'c moved quickly and efficiently, lifting Jack out of the water.

"Okay, Colonel, we got you," said Sam, moving to assist Teal'c.

Doctor Frasier waited until he was clear of the water and lying on the ground before handing her weapon off to Sam and then feeling around in the "X" shaped skin flap. Making a noise of disgust, she felt around briefly. "Nothing in there yet."

"This is a good thing," said Sam Carter.

"Well, maybe," said the Doctor.

"He no longer has an immune system," pointed out Teal'c. "Without a larvae, he will soon die."

_BOOM!_

"What the heck was that?!" asked Janet as the lights flickered and dust filtered from the ceiling.

* * *

Kos-mos' hand switched back from hand-cannon mode to something that looked more normal.

Hathor stared around at the scattered soldiers. "You've killed my thralls?"

"Correction: mind controlled personnel have been neutralized using nonfatal methods," said Kos-mos.

"What?" asked a partially deafened Hathor, the sonic boom and pressure wave having not knocked her out.

"What?" asked Sailor Venus and Sailor Saturn behind the flickering defense of a Silence Wall.

"Kos-mos, never do that again," said Shion, holding her ears and in between Venus and Saturn.

"Ra might have feared you, but I will simply make you hosts," said Hathor, holding up her glove-weapon and sending the beam directly at the head of the one menacing her.

Kos-mos stepped backwards under the force of the attack, eyes narrowed as she analyzed the beam.

Sailor Saturn dropped the Silence Wall.

"Venus Zat Gun Attack!" called out Sailor Venus, shooting from the hip.

Hathor twisted to avoid the attack, which hadn't been well aimed anyway. Her hearing was returning enough to hear that, at least.

"Minor damage to frame appearance," said Kos-mos. "Accessing file. Appropriate line found." Her right arm morphed into a long tube. "Snake season." _POOM!_

"Yeah, 'Hasta la vista, barbell'," said Venus, getting ready to shoot the Goa'uld with her zat gun.

"I think she's dead already," said Saturn.

"I just wanna make sure," said Venus. "She didn't turn to dust or something. Ya gotta watch these Dark General types, ya know."

Saturn nodded, accepting that as the Voice Of Experience.

* * *

Nodoka read the letter for the third time, a smile playing over her lips again.

All the black censorship lines were difficult to sort through, but she could definitely make some conclusions.

Ranma was in America or on an American military base. He was obviously progressing well in manly studies and was SHOPPING with four girls. Clearly he occupied a special place in their hearts. One was his fiancee! Clearly her little boy was a fast worker.

Oh, and he was probably doing well in the martial arts as well.

There were some strange trees in this one shot, so it was obvious they were off camping somewhere. Ah, off in the wilds and all alone with four attractive young ladies - all sorts of opportunities for manliness.

Nodoka nodded and sat back down again. Content. It appeared that her misgivings about Genma's little training trip had been unfounded. The last picture, showing Genma himself and where a large dojo was being constructed, showed that Genma himself was apparently eating well and getting plenty of exercise.

Nodoka considered this. Perhaps she should go visit. The question was - how to find them? Ah, that's right - the envelope. The odd Romaji lettering was eventually deciphered.

The next problem was figuring out where this "Colorado Springs, CO" was.

* * *

"Well, this is an anti-climax," said Janet, looking at the dead Hathor and scattered soldiers.

"Uhm, we've still got a dying Jack here," pointed out Sam.

"The Goa'uld have the technology, and Hathor may have brought it to us," pointed out Teal'c.

"The sarcophogus?" realized Sam.

"I have seen the Goa'uld chamber perform many miracles," added Teal'c.

"Isn't anyone else concerned about a piece of technology we know nothing about being used on personnel?" asked Shion. "We don't understand the most basic principles of its operation."

"We know it can fix him," said Sam.

"I'm a little uncomfortable with the term 'fix' used in a medical situation," put in Janet. "And yes, Shion, I have significant reservations about indiscriminate use of the device."

"So what choices do we have?" asked Sam. "We don't have any other medical treatment likely to work."

Teal'c and Sam lowered the Colonel into the sarcophogus.

"How's this thing work, anyway?" asked Sailor Venus after the doors had closed.

"We don't know," admitted Sam. "Like Uzuki here said, we have no idea how it works."

"Who let a dog in here, anyway?" asked Janet, gesturing at where a German Shepherd was nosing around the unit.

The dog looked up. "Woof."

"What do you mean, 'woof'?" asked Shion.

"I should say 'ruff'?" asked the dog.

Janet stared. Sam stared. Teal'c looked like he almost might smirk.

"What are you doing?" asked Shion.

"Analyzing the mechanisms of the sarcophogus," said the German Shepherd, adjusting his accent from 'thick' to 'flavoring' as he noted the effect on communication. "Mechanisms are unknown but apparently some process of energy exchange is involved."

"Wait, it's taking something from Jack in order to heal him?" asked Doctor Frasier.

"Affirmative," agreed K-9.

"Well, that doesn't sound good," summed up Samantha Carter.

"I have observed the Goa'uld utilize the chamber repeatedly without ill effects," said Teal'c.

"To a Goa'uld," pointed out Janet.

"Is there an access panel or something?" asked Sailor Venus, checking around the sarcophogus. Her gloved hand came to rest on one surface.

_snap-crackle_

"What did you do?!" asked Sam.

_pop!_

"I have never seen a Goa'uld chamber smoke or emit sparks like that before," noted Teal'c.

"There was a burst across multiple spectra at moment of contact, theorize interference and feedback," said K-9, relocating himself to closer to the door.

"It isn't going to explode, is it?" asked Sailor Venus.

_POOM!_

"I take it that's a 'yes'," said Sailor Venus.

The lid swiveled open. Jack came up coughing.

Sam stared. Janet stared. Lieutenant Moon stared.

"What?" asked Jack, stopping as something different registered with him.


	11. Chapter 11: Jack's New Problem

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Chapter 11: Jack's new problem

* * *

"O'Neill, you appear to have become female..." pointed out Teal'c.

"Okay, this is seriously screwed up," said the young girl as she confirmed the change by patting herself down. When she was able to cup her chest, it was clear that this wasn't merely a simple joke.

"Is this even possible?" Hotaru asked, blinking at the sight of the colonel showing an hourglass waist as she climbed out of the machine.

"Logically?" Janet replied. "Not a chance. By everything known in medicine, a male can't suddenly be turned female."

"But...."

"I know. We can see it, so it had to have happened. The question is 'why'?"

All eyes turned to look at Carter.

"What?" the captain asked.

"Sam? You're the physicist here. So, it's your department. Unless Teal'c has ever seen something like this before."

"I have not seen any technology of the Goa'uld do anything remotely similar," the former First Prime responded. "Indeed, this astonishes me as much as it does you."

"Does _anyone_ have a clue as to what has happened?" O'Neill complained.

"It depends on how this thing works," Sam answered as honestly as she could.

"What does _that_ mean?"

"Well, if it works sort of like the transport rings, sort of like turning the injured you to energy, and putting you back to matter in one piece, then we can say that a mistake in the 'back to matter' part could be responsible. And if we take in the fact that Minako's energies were interfering with what happened, then that could explain why you came back as a girl."

"Finally! A reason!"

"Not quite, sir," the short haired blonde responded with a wince.

"Why not?"

Shion shrugged. "For all we know, it could merely be using some sort of radiation to force your cells to 'soup up' their healing systems, then you could even shove people back from death, if the body was still viable enough. And if that was the case, then her energies would have shoved your body into new configurations, based on her influence."

"Okay...."

"Could the removal of the affected areas, and the reconstituting of them from other sources also have the same effect?" Kos-Mos asked. "Nanotechnology could manage such an activity."

"Zat is possible. That would mean a rebuilding by parts once the appropriate energies are inserted into the equation," K-9 told her.

"Great. We've got theories, but no answers," O'Neill groused. "There's just three things that I have to say."

"Such as?" Janet asked.

"First.... Did that dog just talk?"

"Yes, it did."

"Wonderful. Second, tell me that we can fix this."

Sam looked to the medical doctor, who shrugged. "We... can't say immediately."

"Just my day. And third...."

"What?"

"Keep Miss Aino _away_ from the advanced alien tech, okay?"

"HEY!" said the named girl as she saw the nods from the others. "I didn't mean to do anything...."

"That's always how it starts. Then comes the running and the screaming. Fun, but we don't need it."

* * *

Tapping his fingers on his lap, Ranma wondered what had happened to Hotaru and the others. He knew that it would be a bad idea for him to go along, but he wished that he could have. Being her protector meant that he had to stay around her, and he didn't want the others to go into danger without him either.

Though, the chill that he'd had only a little while earlier made him feel that he'd just missed a rather major piece of trouble. Something made him thank whatever deity had managed _that_ little bit of 'joy', since he was able to recognize that it would have likely been some sort of hassle for him. But it also made him feel very sorry for whomever it had happened to.

Not knowing why, he clapped his hands three times, and bowed his head as he prayed for that unfortunate soul.

* * *

"Is this really necessary?" Jack asked as she sat on a bed in the base infirmary.

Janet gave the neo-girl a wry look. "May I remind you that the more information that we have, the better that we can understand what your situation is."

"My 'situation' is that I am now of the opposite gender than I was born with. And that I'm back to being young, and I didn't have fun with it the first time around. I do _not_ want to revisit my youth, as a girl or not. No offense."

"None taken. But Colonel, we still need all the information that we can get to find a way to turn you back."

"That would be helpful. Not that it's really doing anything," O'Neill replied, pulling at her collar to look under it to see the rising mounds on her chest. "Yup, still there."

"Sir? This isn't helping."

"Sorry, but I'm not seeing the benefits of having breasts at all."

"Considering the fact that the people who had this kept you guys from using them for 'recreational purposes'."

"We wouldn't have...."

"The airmen were betting on who'd get Sam," Frasier responded flatly.

That got a wince from the newly forged girl. "Point taken."

"Good."

"But can I get back to work, _please_? All these tests don't seem to be getting us anywhere."

"They are at least letting us know that you're not about to melt into a puddle of goo."

"Then I'm healthy?"

"As far as a girl of your apparent age, and physical type, you appear to be."

"Swell," the now-female colonel muttered.

* * *

Jedite was his name. During the Silver Millenium he had been a soldier, a warrior, a strategist. He had served his Prince well and for many years, being diplomat or soldier as was needed. He had been one of four Generals of the Earth Kingdom, and he had dismissed Beryl as being a petulant and spoiled woman whom he hadn't taken seriously.

He was taking Beryl a lot more seriously now, even if much of his time under her mind control had become remote and foggy. While the soldiers around him were not inclined to risk his falling under that control again, Jedite himself was even more reluctant to hazard it. As far as Beryl was concerned, he was dead - and he actively sought to maintain that illusion.

"What you are referring to as magic is a force that flows through and permeates the universe," instructed Jedite. "It isn't easily tapped into - in most cases it is only possible through certain bloodlines. I was a soldier, at times a spy, and studies of such things were not my focus any more than you need to understand the chemical properties of your gun's ammunition in order to shoot them."

Notes were being taken. Recorders were running.

Jedite continued to talk. Everything he said was as true as he could remember it. Everything he said was a step towards his revenge against the life and centuries he had lost.

* * *

Captain Samantha Carter twitched. "She's a combat android?"

"Yes, and some of the genetic data used to construct her form came from you," said Shion.

More twitching.

"Also some of me, and Shion is in there too," added Minako. "It's a regular snogging board."

"I'm not sure of that," said Shion, wincing at the mangled phrase.

Kos-mos didn't blink or show any other reaction to this frank discussion about her.

"Genetic data is used?" asked Samantha, eyeing the silver-blue haired android.

"As near as we can tell," admitted Shion. "Her cellular makeup emulates human structures over 75% of her body. There hasn't been enough time for DNA matchups through testing."

"75%?" asked Sam.

"Even though she's technically an android, or perhaps gynoid, Kos-mos has purely mechanical parts," said Shion.

"Don't you think it's a little mean to talk about her like she isn't here?" protested Hotaru.

Kos-mos cocked her head slightly, indicating puzzlement.

"Sorry, Kos-mos," said Shion. "Anyway, Captain, here's preliminary scans and findings. Hopefully we'll be able to get something useful out of those factories."

* * *

Colonel Maybourne whistled a happy tune. He was a happy man. Oh, he might normally have to do a lot of skullduggery and sneakery, and he may have spent entirely too much time in Black Ops - but he was now a happy fellow.

"Captain, Captain, Major, Major," he said, snapping a quick salute as he sauntered down the corridor.

"That still creeps me out," muttered one of the Majors behind him.

Colonel Maybourne kept up his happy little pace, even managing a brief and oddly smooth moonwalk just outside the test facility doors.

Today, after all, was the test of the USA-XG-3027-1 Personal Armor.

"How's it going?" he asked, sending his cap whirling in midair to neatly land atop a hatrack.

"Everything checks out green so far, Colonel," said his aide. "The USA-XG-3027-1 is almost ready for the simulation."

The Colonel stopped and considered something. "No. That won't do at all. After due consideration, I have to agree with you that that name is entirely too clumsy."

"Yes sir," agreed the aide.

"Oh, the bunny ears," the Colonel pointed. "No."

The aide reluctantly removed the bunny ears from atop her head.

"What about naming it after a famous General or patriot?" asked the Colonel. "It would be a lot easier to get congressional funding and support for a 'Jefferson' Class Power Armor than something like 'Gunion' as I believe you suggested."

"But all the cool giant robots end with '-ion'," said the aide.

"Yes, but this is power armor," pointed out the Colonel with a waggle of an index finger. "First the variable wing fighters, then power armor, THEN we can get to the really big mecha."

"Yes sir," said a clearly disappointed aide.

"You can wear the plug suit connectors if you like," said the Colonel.

"Yes sir," said the aide, perking up slightly as she pulled them out of a pocket.

"I think maybe we should just go with the acronym Captain Silverstein suggested," said Colonel Maybourne. "Strategic Artillery Military Armored Suit, or SAMAS."

"I suppose so, sir," said the aide. "We're still years away from being able to field a fully working model. The umbilical cables are going to be necessary until we can miniaturize some of the components."

Colonel Maybourne's smile grew slightly mischievous. "Maybe we should send footage of the test to Colonel O'Neil over at SGC."

The aide winced. "You can be very cruel, sir."

"Have to keep in practice," said Colonel Maybourne, putting a cigar in his mouth but not lighting it. He looked out the armored glass windows at the miniature Tokyo cityscape. A pity they couldn't do a fullscale Tokyo Tower within the budget. Ah, well, maybe eventually.

"Rail gun tests are scheduled for ten hundred hours, and the ablative armor inserts at thirteen hundred," said the aide, reading from her clipboard.

"Good, good," said Maybourne, meaning it.

* * *

"Okay," said the woman in a soft voice. "This day really officially sucks."

"Well, let's go over the basics, Colonel," said Janet Frasier, moving right along. "As near as we can tell you are in your early to mid twenties."

"I need a beer," said Colonel O'Neill, adjusting her tank top and frowning at the way some of the guys in the room tracked the motion.

"If we could figure out how it did this, we'd make a fortune, sir, you're gorgeous," commented Samantha Carter.

If looks could kill, the one passing from Jack O'Neill to Samantha Carter would have reduced her to a thin red paste.

"Sorry," said Sam, averting her eyes and moving a little away from the woman. "Humor. Trying to defuse the situation."

"Maybe you ought to keep quiet now," quietly suggested Daniel.

"I hate this," said Jack O'Neill. "Have I mentioned how much I hate this? I REALLY hate this."

"Colonel, you were dying with your immune system disabled and without a symbiote, we didn't have any choice," said Janet Fraiser.

"Yeah, right," said the woman. She stood up and started pacing back and forth. "Do you have any idea how different the balance is here? What am I going to do about that lecture tomorrow?"

"Wear a sports bra," suggested Janet. "That way you won't... bobble so much."

Jack stared at her. "'Bobble'?"

Janet looked at the ceiling. "Okay, maybe not the most medically accurate term. But yes, sir. You have a fair amount of 'bobble' there."

Jack gritted her teeth. "Oh that's just GREAT!" With that last word she took a swing at a wall.

_CRUNCH!_

Jack stared at where her petite little fist had just indented the concrete. "Huh?"

"That's it," realized Daniel. "She introduced a vector in the healing mechanism of the sarcophogus. This is like their transformations just applied by the sarcophogus instead of a transformation pen."

Jack looked about ready to cry. "Great. Not only am I a girl now - I'm a MAGICAL GIRL. What next, I'll say some weird phrase and end up wearing a cheerleader costume?"

Janet examined the girl's hand. "Wow. You didn't even break a nail."

"That is just SUCH a relief," said Jack.

"Hitting the wall like that, I expected you to break most of the bones in your hand," responded the Doctor. "You're not invulnerable. I was able to draw blood."

"Just great," said Jack before stopping. "Uhm, I don't suppose I could fly or do some superspeed thing?"

"From the reports I've read the girls in their transformed state have only marginally greater strength and durability, but speed goes up considerably," put in Daniel Jackson.

"I may have to do a more comprehensive exam," said Janet, frowning.

"Uhm, I don't think that's a good idea," put in Sam, realizing what that might entail.

"Oh dear," said Daniel, putting that together. "C'mon Teal'c."

"Where are we going?" asked Teal'c, seeing the look of horror in Daniel's eyes.

"What's that?" asked Jack as something was wheeled closer.

"Oh dear," said Sam, looking like she wanted to flee but was also sort of horrified-fascinated.

"I just did a cursory exam to begin with, a full pelvic exam should reveal if your muscles are in danger of tearing anything loose," said Janet, picking up a speculum.

"what?!" asked Jack weakly, as the topic of conversation penetrated.

* * *

Jack O'Neill would have never thought that Janet Fraiser would have had it in her. To be honest, she'd always thought that Janet wasn't someone to be have carrying a gun in a fire fight, as the woman wasn't supposed to be there in the first place. That wasn't because Fraiser was female, as she understood female soldiers well enough. But Fraiser was a _doctor_, and those were only supposed to be around fighting when there was someone to tend to. It just seemed wrong to ask someone who'd dedicated their talents to preserving to saving lives to kill, or even think that they would be able to.

Of course, she'd kind of pushed aside the fact that even though Janet was a doctor, she was still an Air Force officer.

"Onto the bed, Colonel," Fraiser ordered.

Jack waved a hand in denial. "And why would I do that?"

"So that I can do this exam?"

"Not a good enough reason."

"Because I'm your doctor, and for your health, I'm telling you to do it?"

"My health isn't what I'm worried about," O'Neill scoffed with a snort.

"It should be."

"How's that?"

"Because, I know how to handle patients," Janet replied, and slammed a palm under Jack's new breasts, hitting her just where it would slam the air out of her lungs. At the same time, she kicked out the neo-girl's feet, dropping her back onto the bed.

By the time that Jack was able to blink the blurriness from her eyes, she was strapped to the bed, with her feet bound in a pair of stirrups. "HEY!"

"I'm sorry, Colonel, but I have to do this."

"Why?!"

"Because if I don't, you could get seriously hurt, or wind up with certain complications that you don't want to think about."

"I don't?"

"Trust me, you don't," the doctor replied, holding up a set of metal tools that looked rather shiny. "This won't hurt a bit."

"It's not the hurting that I worry about!"

"It'll be fine."

"No, it.... HELLO!" Jack yelped, as she felt something touching her.

"See? No pain."

"Yeah, but...."

"This may be a little cold...."

* * *

"GAH!"

"Was that the Colonel?" Minako asked, looking at the people around her.

"Indeed," Teal'c replied.

"So...."

"Yes?"

"Should I get him a gift before I go see him?"

"You want to see him?" Sam asked the younger blonde, happy to have something else to think about after being shooed out of the examination room by Janet.

"Well.... Yeah. I have to apologize, right?"

"That's a nice thought."

Daniel nodded, and his smile was reassuring. "I really don't think that you should go see him for the time being."

"He's not on the war road, is he?"

"Let's just say that this might not be the best time for you to see him."

"Pretty much," Carter agreed. "Try waiting at least until this is cured."

"And maybe a little while after that. Say... a couple of weeks."

"It's that bad?" the teenager asked.

Teal'c gave her one of his meaningful stares. "He has been most vocal about how much he dislikes this situation, and the events that have followed his transformation have not been easing that feeling."

"Oh no...."

"Oh, yes," Jackson told her. "I'd even suggest going out somewhere. I know that the military guys won't let you get far from them, but there are plenty of places for you to go, like.... McMurdo."

"How nice is that?"

"Very exotic, and isolated, with only a few people there. Sort of isolated though."

"Oooh... And where's that?" Minako asked.

"Antarctica," Sam informed her.

"With all the ice?"

"Trust me, you'll need it to calm Jack's temper," Jackson responded dryly.

Minako winced, and tried not to slump.

* * *

There were advisors to these other girls, and they were animals that talked, which would have interested K-9 even without the need for more information about the individuals from this world who were so close to the old enemy. He knew that information about them would be helpful, and that everyone involved would need help. It would even be possible to scan the feline advisors, since both the military and he knew that there was little chance that the girls would be bringing them in for a full spectrum of tests.

Besides, they could use someone who could fight.

The only problem was that Air Force transports were not built for canine passengers, but he was certain that he could entertain himself.

* * *

Jack O'Neill would have never thought that Janet Fraiser would have had it in her. To be honest, she'd always thought that Janet wasn't someone to be have carrying a gun in a fire fight, as the woman wasn't supposed to be there in the first place. That wasn't because Fraiser was female, as she understood female soldiers well enough. But Fraiser was a _doctor_, and those were only supposed to be around fighting when there was someone to tend to. It just seemed wrong to ask someone who'd dedicated their talents to preserving to saving lives to kill, or even think that they would be able to.

Of course, she'd kind of pushed aside the fact that even though Janet was a doctor, she was still an Air Force officer.

"Onto the bed, Colonel," Fraiser ordered.

Jack waved a hand in denial. "And why would I do that?"

"So that I can do this exam?"

"Not a good enough reason."

"Because I'm your doctor, and for your health, I'm telling you to do it?"

"My health isn't what I'm worried about," O'Neill scoffed with a snort.

"It should be."

"How's that?"

"Because, I know how to handle patients," Janet replied, and slammed a palm under Jack's new breasts, hitting her just where it would slam the air out of her lungs. At the same time, she kicked out the neo-girl's feet, dropping her back onto the bed.

By the time that Jack was able to blink the blurriness from her eyes, she was strapped to the bed, with her feet bound in a pair of stirrups. "HEY!"

"I'm sorry, Colonel, but I have to do this."

"Why?!"

"Because if I don't, you could get seriously hurt, or wind up with certain complications that you don't want to think about."

"I don't?"

"Trust me, you don't," the doctor replied, holding up a set of metal tools that looked rather shiny. "This won't hurt a bit."

"It's not the hurting that I worry about!"

"It'll be fine."

"No, it.... HELLO!" Jack yelped, as she felt something touching her.

"See? No pain."

"Yeah, but...."

"This may be a little cold...."

* * *

"GAH!"

"Was that the Colonel?" Minako asked, looking at the people around her.

"Indeed," Teal'c replied.

"So...."

"Yes?"

"Should I get him a gift before I go see him?"

"You want to see him?" Sam asked the younger blonde, happy to have something else to think about after being shooed out of the examination room by Janet.

"Well.... Yeah. I have to apologize, right?"

"That's a nice thought."

Daniel nodded, and his smile was reassuring. "I really don't think that you should go see him for the time being."

"He's not on the war road, is he?"

"Let's just say that this might not be the best time for you to see him."

"Pretty much," Carter agreed. "Try waiting at least until this is cured."

"And maybe a little while after that. Say... a couple of weeks."

"It's that bad?" the teenager asked.

Teal'c gave her one of his meaningful stares. "He has been most vocal about how much he dislikes this situation, and the events that have followed his transformation have not been easing that feeling."

"Oh no...."

"Oh, yes," Jackson told her. "I'd even suggest going out somewhere. I know that the military guys won't let you get far from them, but there are plenty of places for you to go, like.... McMurdo."

"How nice is that?"

"Very exotic, and isolated, with only a few people there. Sort of isolated though."

"Oooh... And where's that?" Minako asked.

"Antarctica," Sam informed her.

"With all the ice?"

"Trust me, you'll need it to calm Jack's temper," Jackson responded dryly.

Minako winced, and tried not to slump.

* * *

There were advisors to these other girls, and they were animals that talked, which would have interested K-9 even without the need for more information about the individuals from this world who were so close to the old enemy. He knew that information about them would be helpful, and that everyone involved would need help. It would even be possible to scan the feline advisors, since both the military and he knew that there was little chance that the girls would be bringing them in for a full spectrum of tests.

Besides, they could use someone who could fight.

The only problem was that Air Force transports were not built for canine passengers, but he was certain that he could entertain himself.

* * *

Information from "Mister Jedite" was considered more along the lines of "investigative leads" than completely factual information. By his own admission, his memories had become spotty and uncertain. So long had he toiled under harsh mental domination that there were many areas that he claimed to have no knowledge of whatsoever. Other than that - some of what he said was considered slanted by his views of that time.

Still, it came down to certain basics. There was an ancient time and civilization of mankind where a single "Earth Kingdom" (speculation on this being the civilization whose legends eventually became Atlantis) had a civilization begin based on magical/psionic abilities while much of the planet was still hunter/gatherer. Tentative location would have been the Meditteranean Basin prior to the Gap Of Gibraltar flooding. Some Antarctic bases. Some closer to the Arctic. According to Jedite, there were tales that they themselves were survivors of an earlier race which had died off in a vast plague and these scattered holdings and turning to this alternate technology were results of that die-off.

Enter a pre-Goa'uld race fleeing some war elsewhere in the galaxy. The race was a matriarchal one, more advanced than the terrestrial one but using the same basic forces and "technology". Originally welcomed as refugees and "distant cousins" - the patriarchal society of the Earth Kingdom and the matriarchal society of the Moon Kingdom became more and more hostile over several centuries. There was a chance of reconciliation, mainly because the princess of the Moon Kingdom and the prince of the Earth Kingdom were having an affair of some sort - hidden from the girl's mother as much as possible.

Then Beryl, apparently a jilted lover of the Earth prince, made a deal with yet another alien.

This was all much prior to the Goa'uld coming to Earth. Several alien beings had shown up and it was only when there was a power vaccuum left behind by these beings that the Goa'uld could move in and conquer.

The problem was verifying any of this. Due to the number of years between the two, clay tablets or paper documents would long since have crumbled. However, there was a possibility handed to the JSDF by their informant - several sites he pointed out where there might be something remaining to be dug out.

* * *

Janet Frasier was a medical doctor but also an Air Force officer. Were she required to, she would have no problem sitting under partial cover and firing away at a Goa'uld on some alien world. She had the combat training and the courage.

_grnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnkkk_

"Now now Colonel. It was a slip."

_creakkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk_

"Haloperidol, 32cc. STAT!" Janet called out. "It was just a casual remark, and the speculum came loose when you twisted. It was an accident and it was mainly your own fault anyway."

_chunk!_

Janet eyed the thick reinforced leather strap, the way a steel bedframe was deforming, and the look of utter determination on the face of the patient. She especially viewed the way that the slender limbs were exhibiting the sort of strength she'd have expected from a wrecking yard car crusher. "Colonel you're over-reacting!"

_CRACK!_ was the sound of a thick leather restraint and the metal reinforcement coming apart.

The orderly looked ready to bolt but handed her the prepared syringe.

"You asked for it, Colonel," said Janet, bringing the syringe quickly to where the contents could be shot into her agitated patient.

_bink_ went the needle as it hit a moving muscle and bent.

"Uh oh," said Janet as the girl's now free hand went to one of her other restraints.

_Zip! Zoom! Zing!_ went Janet Fraiser, because while she was a soldier and a doctor - she also had a survival instinct going.

The orderly hid in a supply locker.

"Rrrrrrrrrrrrrr," growled Jack O'Neill, her mane of hair seeming to writhe as if she were in a static field.

* * *

K-9 checked his sensors another time, but otherwise was mainly in a rest mode.

Language and customs had been loaded. Files checked. Anti-virus and firewall active. Full charge on available systems. Now it was just a matter of waiting until the achingly slow vehicle made its way to Japan.

* * *

_THOOM!_

"You said WHAT?!" asked a shocked General Hammond.

"Just a little slip of the tongue," said Janet. "How was I to know she'd react like that?"

_THOOM!_

"I'd think anyone who knew Colonel O'Neill would figure that he'd be a little bit testy at this point," said the General.

_THOOM!_

Several eyes went nervously to the blast doors.

"He hasn't calmed down yet," noted the General.

_THOOM!_

"This... could be a problem," admitted Janet. "Oh well, see you later, General. Got to be going."

_THOOM!_

"I think that might be for the best," agreed the General.

_THOOM!_

* * *

Jack eyed the blast doors, then let her eyes fall upon the bucket of ice and the speculum.

What was good for the goose, after all.

* * *

"I feel nervous even being in the same room," confessed Airman A.

"Aw, c'mon, it's not like Miss Aino is anywhere near here," said a Marine.

"If you're not nervous, why aren't you closer to it?" asked Airman A with a nod towards the sarcophogus.

"Hell, it's not gonna do anything on its own, but why take any chances?" responded the Marine.

"My point exactly," said the Airman.

The Marine shrugged. Thing didn't make him nervous. Nope, not at all. Didn't mean he was anxious to get any closer, but that was just healthy caution. Big difference.

* * *

The one waited.

The time was almost here.

Events were occurring as had been forecast. Probabilities were spinning down the predicted values.

Waiting was difficult but things were falling into place.

Very soon now.

* * *

Captain Samantha Carter heard the footsteps first.

"OUTTA MY WAY!" said Janet Frasier, moving quite briskly.

"Ohhhhh Doctoorrrrr," sweetly sang Jack, carrying an ice bucket which had something metal sticking out of it.

Samantha Carter was familiar with gynecological exams, figured out what the device was, what was going on and...

...for once in her life did NOT immediately come up with something to say. Quiet. Yes, quiet was good. Remaining unnoticed - also good. Ranma did a lot with those ninja techniques and maybe it was time to study those herself.

When he'd taken the job, Mamoru had been reasonably certain that he'd do well enough to function. If he would need to learn anything, then he'd do so, and manage to keep up with the work just fine. He was intelligent enough to do so, and it wouldn't be like he'd be expected to know all the stuff, since they were going to train him.

What was surprising was that they expected him to be trained in a whole different way, in addition to his usual work. Self defense wasn't something that he'd thought that would come up into it, even though he'd be working for the JSDF, but apparently they thought otherwise. But it wasn't like it was hard to see why, as there could always be 'incidents', and staying alive was always a good option.

Of course, he never expected it to be like this.

"Ack!" he cried out as his backside met the mat... again.

His instructor looked down on him and frowned. "You need to do better, Mister Chiba. Get up, and let's try this again."

"Ugh...."

"You won't be getting better if you don't work at it."

"I just don't see the point...."

"Well, I do, and that's what matters," she told him.

Mamoru sighed and got up once more, looking at the athletically attractive woman who'd been kicking his behind around the training area. With her almost boyishly short hair, she might have had a reason for being mistaken for a guy, but he could admit that there was no way that would happen. She managed to be a tough woman with a lot of dignity, and that meant that he was stuck without a way to complain about all the bruises that he'd get.

When she looked over at him with that direct stare of hers, he knew that she was not about to let up.

Sergeant Takeo Kumagami didn't seem to have a single ounce of 'give' in her entire body... and she had suggested that if he did well with her, he could get someone even _better_ to teach him. Much as that sounded good in theory, he had visions of himself flying off the mat, instead of falling.

All he'd wanted to do was to get help with his problems, and he got this. Life could be funny sometimes.

* * *

Life was pretty good by Usagi's standards. She had good friends, lots of support, and even being 'Sailor Moon' wasn't being as bad as it could be. Sure, she did have to fight all those mean and nasty creeps, but she also had a lot more to do that with. Where she used to have to fight and hope that she'd manage to do it, she now had real soldiers ready to help her fight. Instead of having to spend time checking out possible Dark Kingdom sights, she could go there when she was actually needed. There was no more running around hiding things, and trying to sneak around, since the government guys could help out a lot. And they were all so _nice_.

She just wished that they could help her keep her alarm clock set. "Gotta run.... Going to be late.... Need to hurry.... Miss Haruna'll be _so_ mad...."

Luna, carrying the lunch that her charge had forgotten, sighed, and wondered when the girl would really grow up.

They dashed up along the route to the school, going as fast as they could. Despite being a magical girl supported by the government, she still had to follow the rules of her school, and that meant being on time. Even the government had only so far that they could interfere, much to her annoyance. After all, she would have preferred to be driven to school, and not have to run around like this.

Then again, any complaints that she might have had ended when she darted around a corner.... and rammed straight into some strange guy. "Ooof!"

"Hey, are you okay, bud?" asked one of the guy's two friends, as all three glanced at her.

"I'm.... hurting here!" the one she ran into cried out. "I think she broke my leg!"

"Man, oh man.... This is serious...."

"But.... he looks fine," Usagi murmured, inching away from the men. "And I have to get to class...."

"You can't go anywhere!"

The other friend nodded. "You went and hurt our friend."

"Now what are you going to do?"

"'Do'?" she parroted.

"Yeah! I mean, you've gotta be able to do _something_ to make him feel better," the first friend commented as he and his comrade leaned in at her.

She was just starting to cringe as a new voice sounded. "Hey, you guys! Leave her alone!"

"Huh?" went the three guys, as they and the blonde looked over to see a tall brunette standing there.

"What do you want?" asked the first friend.

"I want you to leave that girl alone. You got me?"

"And if we don't? What will you do then?"

"I'll make you."

"Oooh.... We're scared. How's about we have fun with the both of you!" the friend said, as the three came after the newcomer.

The brunette was better than them by a long shot. As they lunged at her, she was already moving to dodge. Her answer to their attack was to punch one in the jaw with one hand, and then uppercutting him into unconsciousness. Then she slammed her elbow into the one coming at her from behind, folding the guy over it, and shoving him away so hard that he was slammed into a tree, and knocked senseless.

"Why you...." said the 'injured' party, as he ran at her, showing that his leg didn't have a thing wrong with it.

Not that she seemed to take any note of that, as she brought a long leg up to kick him in the head, sending him spinning around once before he fell to the ground.

Then the new girl turned to Usagi and smiled at her. "Are you alright?"

As she was too astonished by what she'd seen, the blonde merely nodded.

"Well then, I'd better be going. I don't want to be late for my first day of class. See you around," the brunette told her, flipping her hair up to show a sparkling rose shaped earring before she walked away.

"Wow...."

"Usagi?" Luna asked as she caught up, and dropped the lunch bag next to her charge. "Who was that?"

"I don't know.... But she's so _cool_."

"But you don't know anything about her."

"So? She's got to be a nice person. She saved me from these guys...."

"And here I thought that it was the job of that boy to keep watch over you."

"I had the situation under control," commented a familiar voice. "Had that girl not taken efficient action to remove the threats, I had a tazer with sufficient charges to do the job, as well as unarmed techniques to do the same."

"Sosuke!" Usagi chirped happily.

"Miss Tsukino. I determined that you might be delayed for class again, and thought it prudent to come before any problems arose," he told her.

"It's good that you did. Though...."

"Do not worry. We will have a full work up of her history within a short time, and if she's a possible threat, we will take appropriate actions. At this time, it seems that she is someone who merely capable in fighting and uses that talent to help others. However, that might be simply a ruse to lure you into feeling comfortable around her. We'll know more later."

"I _still_ think that she is cool."

"And I think that you are going to be late," the mooncat put in.

"Your advisor is correct," Sosuke confirmed.

"AHHH! I've got to hurry!" she screeched, and ran off again.

* * *

Kos-mos stood there in the soft ground of the town square, noting her surroundings and the people within the immediate environment.

"Kos-mos," called out Shion. "This is a TRAINING exercise. You are not to kill or seriously injure anyone. Ranma is your team-mate, not an enemy. Do you understand?"

"I understand," said Kos-mos. "Nonlethal parameters. Injuries requiring more than 24 terrestrial hours to recover from are not permitted."

"I ain't using these," said Ranma, holding up the weapons. "I've been using 'em during the warm-up 'cause I'm still working on familiarizing myself with them."

"Two single-edge zero point seven five meter long blades, monomolecular edge, crystalline buckyball material," noted Kos-mos. "Design uncertain."

"Yeah, I think they're pretty nifty myself," admitted Ranma. "Had to have the big guy work out a means of carving the material and coming up with sheathes that grip the sides so they don't get cut."

Kos-mos noted the weapons being handed off to Hotaru, and wooden duplicates being slid into his belt instead.

"Ready," said Shion as the two faced each other across the town square.

"GO RANMA!" called out Hotaru.

"Thirty on Kos-mos," said Jaeger. "I mean, she's a combat android for crying out loud."

Staff Sergeant Ringo smirked. "Okay. I'm in."

"I could see either way," said Allston. "I'm just watching for the entertainment value."

"BEGIN," called out Shion, waving the banner to signal the fight's beginning.

* * *

"The scanning equipment Mister Jedite suggested came up with this," said Colonel Anderson. "Got to admit, we normally wouldn't have checked this site any further."

"I'm still having some trouble with my SCUBA equipment," said Captain Tapping. "My reception keeps cutting out."

"That's to be expected," said Colonel Anderson. "Remember the energy dampening qualities of that technology. The SCUBA equipment is entirely mechanical so those should be okay. Have your chemical lightsticks ready in case we lose power."

"Yes sir," said Tapping, rolling her eyes though she knew her commander couldn't see it. "How far down are we?"

"Gauge reads four hundred thirty meters," said the Colonel. "Ah."

Tapping swam closer, playing her lights across the column. "That writing is unfamiliar."

"I'm recording it. We'll let the specialists look it over later," said the Colonel. "Proceeding on."

"According to our source, this was a barracks in the past," said Tapping. "This is the fifth site and the only one we've seen any traces of something remaining."

"It may have survived simply because it is in a cave complex that has been flooded," stated the Colonel. "Though whether anything useful has survived is another question. They were apparently fond of biodegradable materials."

"Good for them, not good for us," agreed Tapping. "Still, the brass is hoping that military equipment would be constructed of more durable material."

A few more minutes yielded a resulted in something tangible. "Is that a door?"

"All the crud has accumulated over the centuries, we'll have to blow it open," said the Colonel. "Fortunately the local water is pretty pure and without much mineral content or we wouldn't even be able to see it."

* * *

The MALP trundled along without much attention being paid to it.

It was small, not edible, and not particularly interesting. It had been uprated slightly from previous models via (among other things) a set of programming code that made it a little smarter without actually being sentient. It determined where obstacles were, where it was safe to traverse, and where "whopping big critters" weren't likely to step on it.

These parameters were sufficient that the little MALP had now gone a little over two miles from the Stargate and was now searching for a direct line-of-sight so that radio transmissions could be sent directly to the Stargate for when the connection would be made.

Finally a stand of pointy rocks was selected and the antennae unfurled, using the same sort of memory-metal that was utilized in Jaffa helmets. The MALP oriented its camera and awaited the Stargate opening so that it could fulfill its function and transmit its data.

Nearby, several kaiju sniffed the air but otherwise ignored the inedible thing moving around. It was neither prey nor predator, and therefore not worthy of concern.

* * *

The dice had been cast, such as it were.

Shion stared. She'd seen Ranma fight before, but only briefly and she'd been otherwise occupied in those instances. Ranma was a fourteen year old boy who seemed unusually wiry and fairly fit, but somewhat lackadaisical and unfocussed. What she'd glimpsed before, she was seeing in full now.

"Are you recording this?" asked someone nearby.

"As much as I can, but they're kinda fast," said someone else nearby.

A droll little voice in her head commented on the understatement.

Ranma had run forward and blurred, almost as if he'd suddenly shot out of a cannon. The way the dirt flew from the point he accelerated from indicated _something_ but Shion was having a hard enough time keeping track of just one of the combatants at a time.

There was move, countermove, counter-countermove, and so on. Each anticipating attack and moving to dodge or intercept, then altering their approach based on the alterations of their opponent.

Ranma finally broke that zig-zag pattern to leap towards Kos-mos in a flying attack.

Kos-mos dodged, cartwheeling to the side in a silvery blur before returning in an attack stance.

Ranma touched down, then flipped to the side, dug in, and leapt at Kos-mos.

Ranma's kick and Kos-mos' punch connected with each other. The two leapt back again and regarded each other.

"Damnnnnnnnnn," said one of the Marines. "I ain't seen something like that outside'a one of them Hong Kung Phooey flicks."

"Yeah, and those used wires and camera tricks," said Allston as he walked past them. "I imagine the senior Mister Saotome may get some more applicants for his school out of this."

"Why are they just standing there now?" asked Shion.

It was a little surprising to hear the answer come from Minako. "Psychic duel. Each of them is figuring out how the other can or will move, and how to counter it. You see this in those American 'Old Westerns' and in samurai epics all the time. Then when they do move, it will all be over pretty quickly."

The odd stalemate continued for a moment, then Kos-mos moved - a crackle of energy signalling her summoning a weapon.

Ranma apparently wasn't waiting to see WHAT was going to pop up, his foot kicking up a loose rock that he then spin-kicked towards Kos-mos before launching himself to the side.

Kos-mos moved her head slightly to allow the rock to pass by, one hand now holding some handgun.

"Hey, that's that gun you -" said Minako to Hotaru.

"How did she get it?" asked Hotaru, alarmed.

"Kos-mos!" said Shion, reacting to what she was sure was about to be a dead Ranma.

Ranma disappeared. One moment there, the next he was not.

Kos-mos began looking around, calmly and methodically.

"The Umisenken," said Hotaru.

"Ninjitsu," concluded Minako.

"That's just flat out impossible," was Shion's reaction.

Kos-mos ducked and rolled, Ranma suddenly appearing in midair to nonetheless strike the hand holding the handgun.

"Success," said Kos-mos, lashing out with a kick while balancing on the other hand.

"Almost," agreed Ranma, somehow twisting out of the way.

"Hmph," hmphed Genma, digging into a bag of popcorn. "Not too shabby. Could be better."

Kos-mos and Ranma rolled and then bounced back to face each other again.

"Kos-mos has an advantage," noted one of the Marines. "Ranma's breathing hard."

Ranma gulped air and focussed on his opponent, who looked impassively back.

Again, they moved in unison.

Then fire erupted in the skies.

* * *

"What is it?" asked Professor Tomoe, his feet sliding on the tiles of the command post as he attempted to go from running to perfectly still.

"Three Al'kesh bombers, apparently one of the other System Lords has learned of our location and is testing our defenses," said C'id.

"And our defenses are?" asked Tomoe, thinking specifically of large tanks.

"Radar marks three missiles in pursuit of bombers," said Corporal Stirling.

"Only three?" asked the Professor.

* * *

Studies of the Death Gliders and wreckage in near-orbit as well as going repeatedly over the data from the last engagement had provided details which the BOLO made use of.

Each missile was meant only to catch the vehicle targeted, penetrate the shield, then release cargo. The missile could then be recovered and reused.

"COWABUNGA!" declared Peebo #1 as he shot out of his missile and extended anchors to the ship's hull.

"i'm really depressed about this," grumbled Peebo #2 as he latched onto his own target.

"WEEEEHAAAAA!" declared Peebo #3, likewise latching onto an Al'Kesh.

Peebo #1 found the proper insert point. "Cap'n, your engines canna take more of this."

Peebo #2 cut power to the engines of its target. "Oh, what's the point? You understand, don't you?"

Peebo #3 began drilling into the cockpit. "I know we've just met, but I just wanna get acquainted."

* * *

High above their heads, three Goa'uld attack craft began bobbing and weaving in a drunken dance.

Ranma blocked, dodged, and started to roll.

Kos-mos punched, kicked, and stomped.

The audience had mainly gone to shelters.

* * *

Al'Kesh bomber #1 landed rather ungracefully, plowing a furrow into the ground. The second one crashed into a cliff-face and was pretty much just a scorch mark. The third one landed perfectly well except that the Jaffa on board seemed to have some metallic beetle molesting her.

The BOLO allowed that patterning emotive routines on some of the characters he'd watched on video was perhaps an area he should avoid in the future.

* * *

The German Shepherd was one of the last to debark from the plane, and he quickly trotted across the runway, down a stairway, and into a hidden elevator. All with the air of a dog who knew where he was going.

"Who let a dog in here?" asked Uematsu as the dog came through.

"I let myself in, herr Uematsu," said K-9. "Now, if you have that Death Glider here, I have a software patch to download. Might as well get right to work, after all."

"Ah," said Uematsu. "Well, why not. We've got talking cats around, why not a working dog? Why not indeed?"

* * *

Sam shifted her weight from side to side, and tried to keep her eye on her opponent. Anything, from a glance, to a direct movement could hint at what the one that she was facing would do. If she guessed wrong, or was faked out, she'd wind up having to scramble to rectify that situation. However, she was certain that she could manage it perfectly, and when the movement was started, her eyes widened as she moved to intercept the opponent's forward motion.

But Jack was too fast and slipped around her to get another slam dunk.

Putting her hands on her hips, the blonde gave her commander a dry look. "Looks like you get a point... again, sir."

"There might be a lot of drawbacks to all this," the neo-female replied with a shrug. "But being faster and stronger is cool."

"'Cool', sir?"

"You do know the term, right, Carter?"

"Of course, sir. It's just that you sound like how you look."

"Don't even go there," O'Neill growled as she bounced the ball to the scientist.

"You know, there are people who'd love to be in your situation."

"What? Turned into the opposite sex?"

"Possibly. But I was thinking that a lot of people would love to be young again."

"Well then, they can have it!" the colonel replied as she charged forward with as much strength as she could manage, as the blonde made her attempt to get to the hoop.

Carter actually managed it, as she twirled around and did a quick shot from the right side of the basket. She turned to face her commanding officer, and comment on what had just happened... but the sight of the figure on the floor stopped her. "Sir! Are you alright?!"

"Just dandy. Perfect even."

"Sir?"

Jack flipped over and grinned up at the captain. "I never thought that landing flat on the floor could actually feel good."

"Oh?"

"No padding in the way. Ah, nice and flat. How I missed it."

"Yes, sir," Carter answered, looking like she was about to giggle herself.

* * *

For the most part, General Hammond hated paperwork. Having to fill forms out in duplicate or triplicate was bad enough, but it also took time from other things that he liked about his job. He preferred to spend time with his men or his granddaughters, rather than have to do forms and such.

And at the moment, he _really_ didn't want to fill out a report on the latest 'incident'. After all, how did one explain that he had not only allowed an alien entity to take control of the base and the men in it, but had actually been on the verge of allowing the female personnel as sex toy rewards for the men? It sounded rather preposterous to even his ears, and he knew that he had no choice in the matter. Of course, nothing of what they'd done had actually been their own fault, but the fact of the matter was that they had still done it. That meant that he was going to have to come up with a way of explaining it without trying to sound like he was excusing it. There was even the fact that he had his base doctor taking a few days of rest to recover after the strain of the situation.

He was never so happy to hear the buzz of his phone as he was at the moment. Picking it up, he kept himself from letting his frustration show. "Yes?"

Fortunately, what he was told kept his mind off of the other parts of the Hathor 'incident', and put it on one part in particular.

* * *

"So, what's the word, doc?" O'Neill asked jauntily.

Carter shook her head in bemusement before turning her attention back to her reading of the lab results. "Energy."

"What?"

"You asked for a word, sir."

"Ha ha. Come on, why did I suddenly just zip back to being me?"

"Near as I can tell? You wore the transformation out."

Daniel held up a hand, with a confused look on his face. "Excuse me? 'Wore it out'?"

"Exactly. You see, it was like a power charge that shocked into his system. For as long as that energy was high enough, it could make him be... well, 'her'."

"And now?"

"He used up enough energy to turn back to himself."

"Which I'm very grateful for, thank you very much," Jack replied.

Teal'c raised a brow. "Should we not worry about other effects as well?"

"Doc Warner gave me a clean bill of health, and Carter here just told me that I just used up my charge. What should we worry about?"

"I didn't say that there was nothing to worry about," Sam corrected.

"Always happens. Lay it on me."

"Well, you only used up enought energy to come back to being yourself. You never used it _all_ up."

"Which means?"

"That energy can affect you, perhaps enhancing your natural abilities a little bit, or possibly causing you to have some sort of other abilities. And, it is entirely possible that you could turn back into... the other 'you' in the future."

"Not what I wanted to hear."

The blonde looked apologetic. "Sorry sir, but I had to tell you."

"I understand, but just _how_ could I get back to being like _that_?"

"Well, a sufficient 'recharge' to the left over energy would theoretically do it. Now, that _could_ be any sort of compatible energy, as there are possibly some out there that would push it like that. However.... I would suggest staying out of a sarcophogus. There's a good chance that you would wind up.... You get the idea."

"Those devices are not designed to repeat what happened in the accident," the Jaffa commented.

"Normally, that would be true, but the energies of a sarcophogus were part of what happened to him. And they are likely to be just what he has in him could use to recharge, giving him a good chance of turning back into a female."

"Then I keep out of them," the colonel commented. "And it isn't like I'm planning on using the next available one."

"Of course not, sir."

"Now, I do believe that we'll be seeing SG-7 soon."

"It is on the schedule, sir."

"Good. It'll be nice to go on a nice, quiet, and calm mission as myself," Jack responded with a bit of cheer.

* * *

"Gentlemen, ladies," said the Senator. "I believe we have the leverage we need to get control of the SGC lifted out of its current administration and into our control."

"This being?" asked a portly individual, tapping his fingers on the table.

"Her name was Hathor, and apparently she took control of the complex by using a mind control drug," said the Senator with a thoroughly malicious smile. "There is power and wealth to be had here, and it will serve a higher purpose. Our purpose, of course."

* * *

"Hello major major profits," said one of the technicians.

"How so? She's a false goddess maybe, but a dead false goddess," said another technician.

"We're nerds right?" asked the first technician. "Military nerds perhaps, but nerds nonetheless."

"I prefer 'geeks' - it has a more traditional grounding," protested the second technician.

"Underpaid, overworked, years of schooling in chemistry and biology and so on?" asked the first technician. "Dateless and alone?"

"I dated... once," allowed the second technician.

"Look at this report, see this line here. Super-pheromones?" said the first technician.

"O...kay, so you're into guys now?" asked the second technician, edging away.

"Idiot, we change it from guy-attractant to girl-attractant, lower the whole compulsive thing, and _BAM!_ we've got an aftershave that changes us from un-date-able to chick-magnet," said the first technician. "We can out-Bond James Bond."

"I thought you said 'profits'," said the second technician, trying not to fantasize about this scenario.

"Not all profits are measured in monetary terms," opined the first technician. "And if we 'field-test' this - that merely means we're thorough. After all, if it works well, we might be able to have that Colonel O'Neill guy recruiting female Goa'uld into supporting us."

"I don't think from what I've read that Colonel O'Neill would go for that," said the second technician.

"Ahem," said a third voice.

"COLONEL!" squeaked the two technicians, snapping to attention.

"It's an interesting idea," said the Colonel, thinking about the last time he'd pulled a prank on someone. He was feeling upbeat and chipper lately, and a certain amount of mischievousness might just be permissable. "Proceed. Once you have a trial sample, we'll have Colonel O'Neill test its effectiveness. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to assist us in this little endeavor."

* * *

"What happened here?" asked Shion.

"It looks like Kos-mos ran out of power, and Ranma fainted from exhaustion," said Hotaru.

"Boy needs to work on his endurance," said Genma, shaking his head sadly. "He had to go all out against an opponent, and exhausted his reserves. Hotaru, can you take care of him?"

"ME?!" squeaked a suddenly blushing Hotaru.

"I'll help you move him to your room, he'll need someone to watch over him until he recovers some," partially lied Genma. "Your room is closer and I know you'll take good care of him."

Beginning to sweat, Hotaru stammered out something that vaguely sounded like an agreement.

"Good, I think your father is going to be busy for awhile going over those two ships," said Genma, hefting up Ranma and nodding towards those 'Al-kesh' things.

_Yes indeed_, thought Genma as he saw indecision fade to determination on the young girl's face. _Most promising._

* * *

Mamoru felt eyes on him as he shot at the target repeatedly.

Slowly he turned, only to find what was watching him was a large German Shepherd around whose neck was tied a red bandana. It somehow gave the dog a somewhat roguish look. Shrugging, he turned back to his task and shot again.

"Adjust your aim two centimeters higher."

Mamoru blinked and looked around for who had spoken.

"You are also tensing your shoulders too much," said the dog.

Mamoru's jaw dropped and he stared.

"The bandana's too much?" asked the dog.

* * *

Colonel Anderson's only sound for a long minute was the escaping bubbles from his respiration through the scuba gear.

Captain Tapping was likewise silent.

"Come on guys," came the voice over the radio. "Pan the camera, say something. What did you find?"

"Specialist Shanks, give the radio back," came the voice of Sergeant Judge over the same radio.

"We've found... a room," said Anderson, "looks like moving around in here would disturb the waters even more than the little charge we used to open the door. It's kinda murky even so."

"The biodegradable materials have degraded," said Captain Tapping. "There's also something imbedded in the walls and ceiling though. They're... stars. Or little metal studs in the positions of stars. They're off though."

"Well, 10,000 years can do that," said Shanks.

"Large raised pedestal in the center of the room," relayed Tapping, approaching it slowly. "Cracks running through the support and base. Particulate cloud makes it difficult to make out the top."

"Okay, back off for now," advised Shanks. "We can set up the blower to clear that area and try again in an hour after some of the particulates have been cleared."

"Sergeant, send a signal, we have found something but nothing with obvious weapons potential," ordered Anderson.

* * *

It was just some technician, the newbie from the JSDF in fact, tripping and falling up against the address computer while carrying a large bundle of cables. It should have done nothing at all.

_Fzzzt!_

"Ouch," said the technician, seated on the ground and rubbing his head.

Harriman stared. "Address accepted? Sir, it's dialing out!"

"What?!" asked Jack O'Neil, Samantha Carter, General Hammond, Janet Frasier, Daniel Jackson, and several unnamed technicians in the background.

"What about the code locks?" asked Captain Carter, seating herself at a display and typing away quickly.

"Chevron Four, Five, Six, Seven," counted off Harriman. "It's going faster than usual?"

_FWOOOOSH-CHOOM!_

"Outgoing wormhole established?!" Captain Carter stared. "Hitting the keyboard with his forehead and it dialed a valid address? Do you know what the odds are like?"

"We're going into town and buying us some lottery tickets," Jack advised the still-on-the-floor technician.

"Incoming transmission!" announced Harriman.

"_Signal traced. Point of origin determined. Initial scan commencing._" came a voice that seemed to come from all directions. A pulse of light followed.

"Close the iris," ordered General Hammond.

_SHFFFFFFFFFF!_

"I've cut the connection," said Captain Carter as the wormhole collapsed.

_swisssssssssssssssh-chunk!_

"Chevron #1 is locked," noted Harriman.

"Unscheduled Gate Activation," said Captain Carter, slapping the appropriate button and speaking into the intercom. "Unscheduled Gate Activation. Security to the gate room."

_swisssssssssssssssh-chunk! swisssssssssssssssh-chunk! swisssssssssssssssh-chunk! swisssssssssssssssh-chunk! swisssssssssssssssh-chunk! swisssssssssssssssh-chunk!_

"Chevrons two through seven locked," said Harriman, unnecessarily because everyone there could count. Including the technician with the scalp wound who was now wondering how dead he was going to be over this.

Several Marines took ready stances in the Gate room as had been rehearsed, weapons at the ready. On orders they'd shoot, if shot at - they'd return fire, but each and every one of them knew - start an intergalactic incident and they'd BUILD a hellhole to send you to.

_swisssssssssssssssh-chunk! FWOOOSH-CHOOM!_

"EIGHT?!" asked Technician Harriman, Jack O'Neil, Samantha Carter, General Hammond, Janet Frasier, Daniel Jackson, and several unnamed technicians in the background.

_schinnnnngk!_

"Who ordered the iris open?" asked General Hammond.

"It just... opened," explained Captain Carter.

"Well... close it," not-suggested General Hammond.

_Bleep!_

"It won't accept the command, I've got a Blue Screen Of Death," said Samantha Carter. "Waitaminute, this isn't even a Windows™ system."

Several nervous Marines in the Gate room prepared to start shooting. Many of them added various prayers silently - just in case it helped at all.

The event horizon rippled as something came through the Stargate.


	12. Chapter 12: Aesir and Vanir

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Chapter 12: Aesir and Vanir

* * *

Technician Harriman, Jack O'Neil, Samantha Carter, General Hammond, Janet Frasier, Daniel Jackson, and several unnamed technicians gaped as they observed the unknown was a blonde woman with odd facial markings who smiles at all the soldiers. It wasn't malicious in any way, as would be the case if a Goa'uld had come through. Instead of arrogance that one of the System Lords would have shown, she came down the ramp with the gentleness of a breeze on a beautiful summer's day.

"Hello, I am from the Asgard. My name is Belldandy," she told them softly, folding her hands demurely before herself.

"The 'Asgard'?" General Hammond parroted.

Daniel raised his brows in a show of understanding. "'Asgard' is the place in Norse mythology where the 'Aesir', their gods, came from."

"Hold on a second. I think that I learned this stuff in school," Jack asked. "Are we talking about guys like Thor and Loki?"

"Pretty much."

"Swell. So we have a girl from the Viking gods?"

"Well, I don't know about that. I mean, it is theoretically possible. The Goa'uld used the identities of gods for their own purposes, so another race doing it wouldn't be unexpected. But.... I don't remember a 'Belldandy' in any Norse mythology."

Belldandy smiled kindly at him. "That's because here they called me 'Verdandi'."

"Now that one I know."

"You do?" Doctor Frasier asked cautiously.

"She's one of the Norns."

"Okay...."

"They're a trio of goddesses who spin the threads of fate, like the Greek Moirae, or... Fates. She's the one of the Present."

"But the question remains," Hammond said. "What are you doing here, Miss Belldandy?"

"Why, I was called," the Asgard told them simply. "Someone used your equipment to call to us, and I came as an answer."

"Who could have done that?"

"I don't know, sir. There was only one thing that happened, and it was an... accident?" Sam murmured as she turned to look at the JSDF technician. "You didn't do anything else, did you, Morisato?"

"No ma'am...." Keiichi replied rubbing his shoulder where he'd hit the computers.

"Then how...."

"Fate does move in mysterious ways," Belldandy told her. "But it looks like Mister Morisato is hurt...."

Janet went over and gave him a quick look over. "Probably just some bruising. Could have twisted it too, but I'm pretty certain that it'd be more likely that it's just shock. An ice pack could help...."

"It's not going to hurt him?"

"I wouldn't say _that_. It will probably ache for a few days...."

"Oh, that's not good."

"Unless you have some way of fixing it, he'll just have to handle it," the doctor replied.

"Oh, then I suppose that I should help," Belldandy murmured as she stepped over to Keiichi and held her palms over his injury. A soft glow pooled between her hands and his body, and it grew to be no brighter than a warm fire. But it was clear that it was more than that when she pulled her hands back and he was able to move without so much as a wince. "There you go. Feeling better?"

"Defintely! Thanks," Keiichi replied with great cheer.

"I'm glad. I wouldn't want your injury to be from your calling to me."

"I didn't mean to do it, but that's nice of you. Still, you shouldn't blame yourself."

"You don't blame me?"

"Of course not. You've been nothing but nice. I just wish that there would be other girls like you."

The alien girl blinked at him. "Oh?"

"Well, look at me. I'm not exactly the tallest guy around."

"Things like that don't really matter. It's the size of the heart that is really important, and I can see that you have a large one."

The Japanese young man blushed, and rubbed the back of his head. "Thanks...."

"It's nice to see a visitor who actually has manners," O'Neill commented, "but there is one thing that I don't understand. Did you just come for a visit?"

"Actually, no. You see, when we are called, we come to see about giving the person who called us something in anyway that the one who comes to reply can manage. In this case, that would be Mister Morisato, and me," Belldandy told them.

"You mean, you came all this way to give him what is basically a wish?"

"Pretty much."

"What would _I_ ask for?" Keiichi asked.

"Anything that you could want, that won't hurt anyone, that is. We don't try to destroy or trouble anyone, if we can help it."

"I see.... But I don't need much. I mean, I've got a job where I get to work with all sorts of amazing stuff...."

"Isn't there anything that you would want?"

"I can't think of anything...."

"Really?"

"About the only thing that I can think of is that I really want to have a chance to get together with someone. I really wish that a girl like you would stay with me forever."

Her eyes went wide, and she threw her head back, allowing a beam of light to shoot up from the marking on her forehead, and up through into the ceiling above them. She rose up off the floor and floated in mid air with winds gusting about around her. Those around her backed up and braced themselves as the military officers began to look for any possible threats.

And then the beam cut off, the air stilled, and she floated back to stand on the floor.

"Contract made," she whispered.

"What does that mean?" Jack asked.

"My people have agreed to have me stay here with Mister Morisato."

"What?"

"What he asked for, he is going to get."

"Which... means?"

"That I will be with him forever." Belldandy smiled with her head cocked slightly to the side.

"Okay," Daniel drawled, "that's interesting."

"You're going to stay with me?" the JSDF technician asked.

"I will... Keiichi. Do you mind if I call you that?" Belldandy asked.

"It's fine by me."

"I'm so glad."

"Things just got that much stranger, haven't they?" Jackson commented.

O'Neill nodded with a wry grin on his face. "Oh yeah...."

"At least I won't be a prize this time," Carter muttered.

Quite a few men there winced at her comment.

* * *

The group sitting around the table was somber, which was usual. In fact, even the way Samantha Carter looked as if she was fighting a headache and apparently still not getting much sleep was fairly normal nowadays.

"Okay, so when we visited Cimmeria and we ran into the Hammer, we knew that these 'Asgard' were potential allies in our fight against the Goa'uld," said Daniel Jackson, checking his notes. "What we've determined so far is that the Asgard and their offshoots the Vanir are two branches of the same species that have diverged."

"Due to uhm, recent events, I'm reluctant to do much probing," said Janet Fraiser as she absolutely did NOT glance at Colonel O'Neill. "At least of an invasive nature."

"What have you found out otherwise?" asked General Hammond, also absolutely not looking at Jack.

"Some differences between human structures and our own," said Janet. "I'm not sure if it's some form of genetic drift or parallel evolution, but she looks close enough to human that she could easily pass for such."

"No little worms or something then," said Jack.

"No, according to her, their race the Asgard split several centuries ago. One group is the Vanir, the other is the Aesir. Both are fairly advanced races, but the manner in which they practice is very different," said Janet.

"In myths, the Aesir and the Vanir were two 'tribes' of Norse gods that had come together in Asgard," explained Daniel. "It was believed that there were two groups of pre-Viking tribes and that the tribe worshipping the Vanir was absorbed by the tribe worshipping the Aesir but that some of the Vanir gods were adopted by the..."

"Daniel, the chase scene?" asked Jack nicely.

"Right," said Daniel with a long-suffering sigh thrown in for good measure. "The threads of life were spun by Urd of the past, gathered by Verdanthi of the present, and cut by Skuld of the future. Past, present, future - making the goddesses of time and fate within the Norse pantheon. Apparently able to prophesy because of a Well that the Norns maintained. The three were technically part of the pantheon but physically and philosophically separate from the rest of the gods."

"What about this 'wish' thing?" asked Jack.

"No record of that," said Daniel. "I can't find anything in the Norse mythos to indicate a wish-bringing legend. The Norse were pretty much 'praise the gods but rely on yourself' and 'nothing without a price' as far as that goes. Getting something for free would have been pretty suspicious to them."

"Which may simply indicate a previous philosophical worldview incompatible with the concept, and therefore they wouldn't have approached the Norse with such a thing," speculated Janet.

"So she's going to be with him forever according to this 'contract' thing," mused Jack. "Other than 'better him than me' - any comments?"

"Mister Morisato will be our contact and go-to man for the Asgard," said General Hammond. "As such, he will spend time on Earth here and some time on this Asgard homeworld of..."

"I think she said 'Halda'," said Captain Carter.

"So are we going to get any goodies out of this arrangement?" asked Jack, thinking whopping big guns.

"That is apparently something she can't do due to a pre-existing contract," said the General. "That was one of the first things we asked about. They are very limited in what they can do for us."

"What about that healing thingie she did to Morisato?" asked Jack. It certainly seemed better than a sarcophogus.

"Psionics," said Janet Frasier. "Apparently the split in the race leading to the Vanir and Aesir was a technological and philosophical one. The Aesir have followed a path similar to our own technology, whereas the Vanir tried to forge another path - which included developing and harnessing psychic potential. Both sides were badly hit by a plague of some kind and they haven't recovered. I'm still getting the details on that."

"Anything else?" asked the General. "I know we haven't had much time, but I've got to file a report with Washington."

"She likes tea," offered Daniel. "When Keiichi got her some at the cafeteria, she ended up trying four varieties."

"When she's happy, she kind of radiates," said Janet. "I was there when she tried the darjeeling. It was like this wave of..."

"Joy," said Daniel. "It was kind of like being a kid at Christmas or something. Just a feeling in the air."

"Broadcast telepathy on an emotional level was my guess," said Janet.

"Psychic goddesses," muttered Sam, clearly not happy about something.

* * *

She changed her clothes and stepped back into the corridor. "Is this better?"

"Gah?" said Keiichi Morisato, jaw dropped as he stared.

The Marines also stared. The nurse stared. There was much staring going on.

Belldandy was wearing a sailor suit, identical to the one in the picture of Sailor Venus they'd had. Except that Belldandy's somehow came off as more demure and sophisticated in a number of ways.

"That's not quite it," protested Keiichi.

"Oh?" asked Belldandy thoughtfully. She went inside the door, there was a flash of light, and then she exited again. "How about this?"

"Medical scrubs?" asked Keiichi, noting that she'd copied the nurse's uniform.

"How are you doing that?" asked the nurse.

"I'm just changing my clothing," said Belldandy, as if this were all perfectly normal.

Which, Keiichi realized, was the case - it was all perfectly normal for her. "Well the scrubs are kinda-"

Belldandy went back into the room, puzzled, another flash of light occurred. Again she returned.

"Much better," said Keiichi with agreeing nods from the soldiers and nurse.

"I don't really understand this," said Belldandy. "It's something that the Midgarders wore back when we last interacted with them."

"It's kind of old fashioned," opined the nurse. "Yet it has a certain charm."

* * *

"A crossbow?" asked Mamoru.

"Silent, accurate, good penetrating power," said Sosuke. "Made of traditional materials but modern manufacturing techniques. The bolts for it are of higher tech materials, teflon coated trinium with Japanese sutra written on the edges. While broadblade arrowheads would normally be incompatible with such a weapon, you'll notice this was designed to use variable payloads. The red band on those four indicate they are high penetration smaller bolts with small thin heads, the three bolts carrying an explosive white phosphor compound have the white band, three bolts which extend a 'frog's crotch' blade in midair - those have the blue bands, two signal bolts - yellow bands - five seconds after firing a magnesium compound will ignite and provide illumination."

Mamoru looked over the ammo belt with the little crossbow bolts in their holsters. "What about the green ones?"

"Those may not work, they are experimental and insufficiently tested," warned Sosuke. "If they do work - it will provide a smoke screen at point of impact."

"Still... a crossbow?" asked Mamoru.

"It's kind of old fashioned," agreed Sosuke, "yet not without a certain charm."

* * *

Each member of the group was sitting with the others, each of them looking to be trying hard to work on a problem. None of the SG-1 team had this sort of experience before, and Morisato wasn't exactly someone who was front line material. Doctor Frasier had seen strange things, but this wasn't exactly in the same vein as in those other times. At the moment, they were each lost in a situation that had to be immediately dealt with, but could not be easily handled.

After all, there was no manual for what manners called for when an advanced alien girl decided to cook one lunch.

"You really don't have to do this...." Keiichi commented.

Belldandy smiled back at him. "I know, but I want to. Everyone, including you all. I thought that it would be only proper to do for you."

"Can't be worse than commissary food... much," O'Neill commented.

"Oh?"

"Trust me. Having a home cooked meal is much more appealing."

"I thought so too. There is something to be said about putting love and care into what you make for a person. Though...."

The colonel raised a brow. "What?"

"We don't usually cook where I'm from.... So... if it's bad...."

"I'm certain that you did your best," Daniel soothed, and took a bite to reassure her. "I mean.... Whoa."

"What is it?" Carter asked.

"This is good."

Teal'c tried some, and raised a brow. "Indeed."

"Really? I'm so happy that you like it," the alien girl told them, clasping her hands together as she gave a bright smile.

"A psychic goddess who can cook," Sam muttered under her breath rubbing her head.

"Is something the matter?"

"Not really. I'm just trying to get through all this. It's not quite what I expected."

"That's true enough. We've encountered Asgard work before," Jackson commented between bites.

"'Thor's Hammer'," Jack put in. "Neat little gadget. Caused us a _bit_ of trouble though. Cimmeria."

"Ah...." Belldandy replied. "That's a Protected Planet."

"Excuse me?"

"Cimmeria. That's a Protected Planet. You see, the Asgard have a Protected Planets treaty with the Goa'uld. We keep the planets safe from any direct attack, while the worlds aren't allowed to grow to be threats to them."

"And since you guys are so strong, they don't want to fight you."

"It is what we can do. There was once another time...."

"You were stronger?"

The Asgard gave off a sad look. "We had friends, but the alliance fell apart when the four races grew apart...."

"'Four'? 'Four races'?" Daniel said with an expectant look.

"Why, yes."

"Ernest's planet! The four languages there pointed towards four different races. And one looked like Nordic runes."

"You found a meeting spot?"

"We did, but it had been abandoned a _long_ time ago. All that was left was the writing and some sort of message left behind."

"That would be that all that would be left. You see, at one time, there was a great alliance of four races. Ourselves, the Nox...."

"Met them. Nice folks," O'Neill observed.

"The Furlings...."

"Haven't actually met any of them."

"And the Ancients, the Gate builders."

"Interesting group."

"We thought so. But things change. The Furlings had their own situations to handle, the Nox decided that peace was more in their direction, and the Ancients...."

"Yes?" Jackson asked.

"They left this area of the galaxy."

A small expression of confusion crossed Teal'c's face. "They went to another area?"

"In a manner of speaking. You see, they Ascended."

"I do not believe that I have heard of such a term before."

Belldandy looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, they basically left to go to another level of existence. They shed the forms that they had, and went on to a higher plane."

"That doesn't help much," Carter complained.

The archeologist of the group shook his head. "Actually, it does."

"It does?"

"You see, there are religions here that speak of using mediation and other techniques to grow past the physical realm, and go on to higher planes."

"In English, please?" the Colonel asked.

"They found a way to get past needing bodies, and went on to become, in essence, another form of life. Sort of like having a character from a comic strip be able to leave its old life, and become part of our world."

"That's... neat."

"We thought so as well," the Vanir agreed. "So we decided to develop what we could in the direction that they had led. We discovered that we had to do it for ourselves, and I'd like to think that we did well."

"And just what do you do?"

"I am a system operator for Yggdrasil, as well as helping out on our calls."

"'Yegg' what?"

"'Yggdrasil'," Daniel corrected. "It's the Norse 'World Tree' that links all the various worlds up."

"Except that it is not really a tree. It's a computer network that works psionically," Belldandy commented gently.

"More new tech," Carter sighed.

"Oh, it's quite old...."

O'Neill leaned towards her. "Does it have e-mail or something?"

"'E-mail'?"

"You know, something to let you call up some people. Or if you don't know that, could you let us know where we can talk to them?"

"I'm not sure that I understand what you want."

"Well, we've met your people, and the Nox," Jack answered. "Could you put us into contact with the Gate building guys? Might be helpful."

"I would.... but they aren't on this level of the universe. Unless you can get to where they have already gotten contact with others, or can Ascend yourself, you can't get to them."

"Then how's about you tell us where they used to live. I mean, we've seen someplace that they were at. I don't want to be at all pushy...."

"Oh, but you're not. It's only natural that you'd be interested," the alien girl responded.

"Then maybe we could stop by and find where they kept their hats."

"'Kept their hats'?"

"You know, their home. Haven't found that yet, and we'd like to pay our respects."

"That has surprised us too."

"That we'd like to say 'hi'?"

"No, because you haven't found a place where they had their structures. But then they were very advanced, didn't like to even leave things that would interfere with other races and it has been a long time...."

"Why would you expect us to have already found a sign of them," Teal'c asked her.

"Because their homeworld in this galaxy was your world. Earth."

"WHAT?!" went three members of SG-1 and Janet, with Keiichi blinking and Teal'c raising his brows in surprise.

"Did I say something wrong?" Belldandy murmured apologetically.

* * *

"So these Ancients existed on our world?" asked General Hammond.

"That's what the goddess said," said Jack, noticing Sam's flinch.

"According to her, human evolution occurred at several points during our planetary history," said Daniel, checking notes. "The race known as _The Ancients_ left Earth to other species, incidently taking most of the signs of their development, about ten million years ago and travelled to a galaxy in Pegasus."

"What level of technology did these Ancients have?" asked General Hammond.

"They built the Stargates," answered Jack, putting it simply. "Nobody else has managed to do that."

"Sir, if you don't mind me saying so," said Daniel, "you seem preoccupied."

"The BOLO of Refuge has protested our continued exploration of this world 'Zeno' without representation," said General Hammond. "Apparently as Zeno and Refuge were both colonies of its creators, it feels that it should have a representitive present if not put in charge of the operation. Specifically the creation of an AI that could link into the factories and take control of them."

"I can see its point," said Daniel, "I mean - these ARE the memories and legacy of what are essentially its parents."

"It's hard to think of a ten thousand ton tank as being someone's kid," protested Jack.

"You may have a point," acknowledged General Hammond with a nod to Daniel. "It is also true that the BOLO has been a valuable trading partner and has been willing to work with us to this point."

"I hear a 'but' coming," mumbled Jack.

General Hammond nodded. "I've heard back from Washington that they want the NID to secure Zeno for themselves. The NID wants to cut BOLO out of this particular venture."

"Sir? We'd have to abandon Refuge if we antagonize the BOLO," pointed out Sam.

"You see the position I'm in," said General Hammond.

"Between a rock and a tank," summed up Jack.

"Actually, you're not," said Daniel, a glint in his eyes indicating that he had a Plan.

* * *

"Lord Ares."

Ares gave up fondling the girl in his lap and fixed the guard with a steely gaze. "Speak."

"The world known as 'Rivos' has just come under attack, milord," said the guard. "The attackers have some previously unknown weapon."

"Rivos? I remember that one. Lots of farms. Send a ha'tak to Rivos then," said Ares, making a dismissing gesture. "Have my Jaffa find these attackers and bring me this unknown weapon."

"My lord," said the guard, neglecting to tell his god that these attackers were apparently human-looking girls in short skirts.

"Now," said Ares, smirking at the squirming slavegirl in his lap. "Where were we?"

* * *

"Senator, you've been working with these people for awhile, and maybe we should review exactly what this little project of yours is about."

"It's not mine," said the Senator, tapping his pen on the expensive table and looking at the ceiling. "If it had been up to me at the time, I would have pulled the plug on the project when I first heard of it."

"Yes, I see here that the first attempt was an accident that was not repeated," said Weiber, the "new kid" despite being old enough to have had grandchildren had he not completely devoted to accumulating money and power. "Then this second attempt where Doctor Jackson was brought in."

"Which was successful in that they eliminated Ra, but set into motion a chain of events," rumbled the deep basso of Mister Browne. "Perhaps a review would be useful all around. Senator?"

"Chain of events? Maybe a train we haven't been able to steer or stop," said Senator Kinsey. "They killed Ra, which upset the power structure of the Goa'uld. The Goa'uld are those snake-things that take over people's bodies. Named themselves after ancient gods in order to lord it up over the masses of slaves."

"They have pride and ego then, which makes them comprehensible to human minds," said Weiber. "So these System Lords are powerful?"

"They have ships that can destroy entire cities, they have missiles which can lay waste to continents, they have the resources of entire planets they can wield at their whim," said Browne with evident amusement. His white teeth gleamed in contrast to his dark skin. "Oh, I'd say they've got a certain degree of power."

"I'm not familiar with you," said Kinsey.

"I'm a frequent contributor to your party," said Browne. "I also control a number of businesses overseas. Now, if I might point out - we have just discovered that our little pond has a connection to a vast ocean. There are many predators out there, but also opportunities. Since we are all here - it is our business to find those opportunities while fending off those predators, is it not?"

"After killing Ra, Daniel Jackson apparently went 'native' for a time. Then came Professor Tomogatchi's theories about how these 'Stargate' operated. The debate was-"

"Tomoe."

The Senator blinked. "Excuse me."

"Professor Soichiro Tomoe," said Browne. "Someone described by the famous Stephen Hawking as 'brilliant but looney' and who once was so fed up with writing reports that he worked out a device which would take a few comments from him and turn it into a report so complete it took two years before someone figured out he wasn't doing his own paperwork anymore."

The Senator blinked. "Really?"

Browne nodded. "I've got a tweaked version of the device myself. Hooks into a normal home computer. I'm just glad he's offworld now. Anyone who wants to go around creating blackholes and might actually do so - best that they not be in the immediate environs."

"Professor Tomoe is a Japanese national who was brought into the Stargate program just before Daniel Jackson," said the Senator to Weiber. "He published a few papers about sub-space conduits and generating wormholes. Mathematical models that indicated he had a pretty good idea that the Stargates were at least possible."

"Which is how a Japanese national got involved in a classified project like this," guessed Weiber, "they thought he might have actually had access to the classified data prior to his own involvement."

"He did indeed predict a number of things, such as the stream indicating whether or not a wormhole was 'outgoing' or 'incoming' - though he thought the wormholes themselves would be static and require an outgoing and an incoming used in conjunction," added Browne.

Weiber scratched his gray goatee and frowned. "So he didn't know - he just had the math down?"

"That's it," agreed Kinsey. "Then he brought his daughter along. Just another example of the lax security currently at Cheyenne Mountain."

"But fortuitous, otherwise we would know nothing of the current invasion of these OTHER aliens," stated Browne.

"Right these... Moonies," said Weiber, going through the papers.

"The original gate destination was the world of Abydos, which has little in the way of resources to make it valuable to us. For all that it was one of Ra's favorite locations, it doesn't seem to have anything really of value there," said Senator Kinsey, deliberately omitting mention of naquadah mines. "After the death of Ra and the loss of the Abydos' Stargate, the program was shut down and the gate would have been sealed away in a warehouse in another week or so. Which was when Apophis' soldiers came in for a raid."

"They killed several soldiers, and kidnapped one that was female?" asked Weiber.

"Right," said Browne, smirking again. "They came from outer space to kidnap our women."

"They were looking for hosts for Apophis' wife - Amaunet," said Weiber, checking his notes. "Why come here when they had to have a fair number of women on this Chulak world?"

"Pride, vanity," said Browne. "At least that's what they speculate. She wanted something beautiful and exotic. They also kidnapped one Hotaru Tomoe who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"There was a completely irresponsible reaction," said Senator Kinsey. "Instead of taking this as proof of the Stargate's danger and sealing it away for all time, they mounted a rescue mission. Which, I might add, was quickly neutralized and captured themselves."

"Per instructions written into his contract, upon Professor Tomoe's capture with his daughter - Ranma and Genma Saotome were immediately summoned," said Browne.

"At which point things got completely out of hand," grumped Kinsey.

"After we received some information about these two," said Browne, "we did some further investigation. Genma Saotome was training under a criminal named 'Happosai' when he was in his twenties. Apparently that's where he learned these ninja skills you spoke of, Senator. Happosai himself vanished when his two students graduated and has not been heard of since."

"Which fits," said Weiber. "Ninja were martial artist assassins, and popular myth until these two turned up. He's likely either underground or dead."

"That would fit," agreed Browne.

"Apparently these ancient moon-people interbred with humans, then lost some war. Their genes surfaced when their ancient enemies surfaced," said Browne, passing out sheets of paper. "You are not the only one here with sources, Senator Kinsey. I have my own - even if they don't know it yet."

"Huh," said Kinsey, not liking this. In power circles like this, you had to know what cards the other guy had - and this Browne person was apparently holding a few good ones. "Hotaru has been identified as 'Sailor Saturn' - having descent from a soldier of this ancient kingdom. Best guess from Maybourne out of Area 51 is that the technology has existed since the old kingdom fell, it was just waiting for activation by the right genetic combination and the presence of a sufficient threat to those gene-holders."

"So there may be others out there with access to this technology, just that they haven't encountered these 'people of the stones'?" asked Weiber.

"That's the theory," said Senator Kinsey.

"So far, we have found a 'Sailor Moon', a 'Sailor Mercury', a 'Sailor Mars', 'Sailor Venus', and 'Sailor Saturn'," said Browne. "We expect nine of these soldiers for obvious reasons."

"What of the asteroid belt?" asked Weiber. "I remember somewhere that it might have been a planet once."

"That theory has currently been disproven," said Browne, "though sometimes these 'disproven' theories can come back into vogue later on."

Senator Kinsey cleared his throat. "Don't forget we're talking about foreign nationals having access to a technology we know nothing about and whose enemies apparently have access to some form of mind control technology."

Browne waved it off. "Go ahead, Senator. You were just at the point where young Miss Tomoe was captured."

"Apparently when she was about to be implanted with a larval Goa'uld, that was enough 'threat' to trigger whatever kind of gadget was involved," said Kinsey. "According to her own report, details are muddled at this point. She wasn't sure what she was doing, just that she needed to get out. Eyewitness reports indicate that she blew up the chamber she was in, destroyed three corridors and an outer wall on the ha'tak vessel she was on, and shielded herself from staff weapon blasts by generating some sort of force shield. Then she somehow teleported Ranma Saotome from Cheyenne Mountain to her current location, and the two of them escaped."

"Killing somewhere between forty five and a hundred heavily armed hostile combatants on the way," pointed out Browne. "You can say many things, Senator, about this boy's combat training. Ineffective would not be accurate."

"We think many of those may have killed each other just trying to stop ninja-boy," protested the Senator.

"And your point is?" asked Browne.

"Somehow these primitive people decided that Hotaru was a goddess and this Ranma was her primary soldier," said the Senator.

"I can see how shielding yourself from massed blaster fire and blowing up parts of a spaceship with purple lightning might give that impression," allowed Weiber. "Any luck on finding out how that technology works?"

"It apparently becomes user-specific after activation," said Browne. "Miss Venus lost a laser pistol recently and that weapon was recovered. Attempts to repair it and determine how it works have been unsuccessful."

"When Ranma Saotome returned home, he was carrying a large amount of alien technology he'd scavenged along the way, apparently hoping to bribe himself out of trouble," said Senator Kinsey. "The natives saw that, and followed their new goddess - scavenging anything that looked valuable or useful as offerings for her."

"Which has had the effect of putting Colonel Maybourne in 'hog heaven' apparently," said Kinsey. "I thought I could rely on him, but he's become a big fan of General Hammond's policies since the recovery effort began."

"Does he need to be replaced?" asked Weiber, making it sound like a death sentence.

"No," said Kinsey with the air of one who had considered it. "If we need him to betray Hammond, he'll do it. He's spent too many years in Black Ops and has his fingers too dirty."

"Agreed," said an otherwise quiet man with hooded eyes to the left of Browne. "He is quite competent where he is and difficult to replace. Many others with his background are unstable or... ambitious."

"Yes, well, there was some problems that cropped up after that," said Kinsey. "In order that the refugees from Chulak and the various non-American personnel not pose a security risk, a site was chosen that they named 'Refuge' on PJ2-445 - a world a few thousand light-years away. Originally they didn't see anything interesting, but then apparently they didn't get more than a few miles from the Stargate. More incompetence - as a bunch of kids found a ruined city near the mountains."

"The city apparently was destroyed by either the enemies of the 'Moon Kingdom' or by people of the 'Moon Kingdom' themselves," said Browne. "The city itself is 600,000 years old and evidences nanotechnology materials."

"It also turned out to have a guardian that was hiding itself," said Kinsey.

"Successful negotiations have given us access to some potentially useful technology," said Browne, his smile breaking out in full once again. "The artificial muscle fiber alone could revolutionize certain industries."

"When we're ready to release it," said Weiber, knowing the score. "What about this guardian?"

"Nothing to be concerned about, just a large military toy," stated Kinsey.

"An artificial intelligence tank capable of upgrading its own parameters," corrected Browne. "Cooperating with it gains us much, Senator. We'll deal with it when it is no longer useful."

The Senator nodded. Nobody was in that room unless they could be completely discrete, and completely ruthless and amoral if it came to that. Civilized behavior was at best a thin veneer. "The big tank made a baby tank, Bonaparte, who has worked with the civilian SG-X and is now with SG-V."

"The civilian branch was set up specifically with these non-American origin groups in mind," explained Browne to Weiber. "Operating out of Refuge, they use letter codes compared to the numeric values of the military groups in Cheyenne Mountain."

"Which was clearly Hammond overstepping his authority again," said Kinsey. "An oversight commitee is clearly needed to investigate Refuge in more detail."

"I'm sure you can handle this, Senator," said Browne. "Continue, please."

"Apophis made an attempt to punish those who had attacked him and fled his rule, but was shot down by the tank and the Earth forces in the vicinity," said the Senator. "At this time we determined that Genma and Ranma were not ninja at all, but psychics - the next step in human evolution."

"We have been trying to find the other pupil of Happosai as he may well also possess psychic talents or at the least some measure of the training," said Browne. "So far we have not found anyone with any evidence of such skills."

"It was about this time that we became aware that certain 'urban legends' had a basis in fact and were connected to Miss Tomoe," said Kinsey. "We tracked down Miss Venus at that point. When Apophis attack was over, we had acquired several of the small fighter ships they call Death Gliders. Things calmed down for about two weeks thereafter. Stargate personnel visited several worlds thereafter. Nothing of interest."

Browne reached over and tapped one of the folders in front of Weiber. "There are briefs on the more interesting of these - 'Land Of Light', 'Cimmeria', P3X-792, P3X-513, and P3X-774. The Nox world is especially intriguing, though apparently lost to us at this point."

"Why's that?" asked Weiber.

"The Nox were listed as one of the four races who had advanced technology prior to the rise of the Goa'uld according to the notes compiled by Ernest Littlefield and eventually translated by Daniel Jackson," said Browne. "Each represented a different approach towards technological development, and different philosophical views as well. The Ancients - oldest of all, the Asgard, the Nox, and the Furlings."

"Whether we could get any cooperation out of any of these is another story altogether," complained Kinsey. "The Nox were not exactly forthcoming."

"I thought P3X-774 was explored by SG-X?" asked another of those at the table.

"P3X-774 is a curious case where dialing it from Refuge pulls up a different location from dialing from Earth," said Kinsey. "Earth connected to the Nox homeworld, whereas Refuge got another planet entirely. It's thought that it might be a glitch in the DHD system as opposed to the system we use here. Refuge finds their version has gigantic factories built by the same species that colonized Refuge."

"It's been found," said Browne. "What Refuge had found was P3X-773 on our own system, but due to a star being directly in between Earth and P3X-773 - that address is unavailable on Earth. Likewise, 774 is unavailable from Refuge due to problems in between the two points. I made most of my money in technological applications, Senator, the details are therefore of interest to me."

"Area 51 has been sent several sets of power armor and SGC has a team going over those factories now," said Kinsey with a frown. "Then the latest set of misadventures began, and demonstrated clearly why Hammond needs replaced."

"Was that before or after another System Lord decided to test Refuge's defenses and they managed to capture two of their Al'Kesh long range bombers?" asked Browne.

"After. Wait. You know about that?" asked Kinsey, having just heard of it himself.

"As I stated, Senator, I have my sources," reminded Browne.

"Yes, well one requires extensive repairs," said Kinsey, trying to trivialize it.

"So far SGC has mainly encountered worlds of a low technological base and few if any resources we can utilize," said Weiber, finger tapping a set of thin folders. "Refuge teams have been following up addresses acquired from their city and have run across a few uninhabitable worlds, one which has some form of improbably gigantic life, and this factory-world of 'Zeno'?"

"Yes, and information is sketchy in arriving from Refuge," admitted Kinsey. "There aren't too many ways to leak information from there to here. We do know that the SG teams operating out of Refuge have some non-terrestrial forces."

"A primitive scout from a world named Cimmeria, a small self-aware tank, and some kind of android," put in Browne.

Kinsey thought a moment, then realized that Browne must have a contact on the diplomatic team - it was the most likely source for such up to date information. "Which brings us to events in Japan."

"Japan?" asked Weiber.

"The Japanese Self Defense Forces have assigned several of their agents to a problem in Tokyo that we alerted them to, and American forces are playing an 'assisting' role there." Kinsey looked as if he had some gastrointestinal problem relating to this situation. He stopped and looked to Browne, almost expecting an interruption.

He got one, but this was from some older severe-looking woman who'd been quiet until now. "The Japanese are better at preventing leaks than their American counterparts. We do have some basic information from intercepted communiques. These 'Sailors' are an alien very-near-human species. These near-humans adapted to life here, becoming human enough for interbreeding. Current speculation by operatives in the American military is that the 'Sailors' destroyed their homeworld in a conflict between nations, one group settling here. A conflict arose later, with an offshoot forming this 'Dark Kingdom' which has begun covert operations in Tokyo's tenth district and in London. The native 'Sailors' have grown up as Japanese citizens, with the strong sense of community that normally entails. The Dark Kingdom views us much as the Goa'uld do - as food at worst or slaves at best."

"No room for compromise, then," said Weiber. "Kill or submit to their rule? No chance we can get this Kingdom to attack the Goa'uld?"

"They are currently unaware of each other," said the woman. "Not to mention they operate in completely different terms of both scale and technology."

"Now may I get to the reason we should be able to throw Hammond out on his ear?" asked Kinsey. "Hathor."

"Gesundheit," said Weiber.

"Hathor was a Goa'uld who managed to infiltrate Cheyenne Mountain, gain control over several key systems, and was about to spread out across the planet," said Kinsey. "Once we get some personnel in to investigate things, we should be able to turn up enough dirt to assume control."

* * *

Makoto didn't have much of an idea of what was going on, though she did realize that she would have to catch up _fast_. As it was, she was stuck without much information, and that made for a hard situation. However, there was something that she'd definitely known, and that was the fact that the monster in front of her had been the guy she'd been talking to, and he'd become a threat to a girl who'd tried to help out, and Usagi, who'd been the first person to ignore her reputation to come and make friends with her.

She wasn't about to let that go, and was going to fight as well.

When the monster went to get Sailor Moon, she reached out and grabbed him from behind, so that she could heft him off of his feet. Angered by his attack, she lifted him over her head, and threw him away from the other girl.

Of course, she hadn't expected to see the blonde staring at her, though it wasn't in fear, like others had. Rather, it was in surprise, as there had been something unexpected, but familiar about what she'd seen. But any question would have to wait, as the enemy came after them, capturing Sailor Moon with an extending arm.

Growling under her breath, she wondered about what she should do. She wanted to help, but she didn't know what would work at that moment.

And then a feminine voice said, "Here, take this."

"Huh?" Makoto grunted in surprise, and looked down. "A cat?!"

"Yes, it was me. But that's not important. Take this," the black cat told her.

"And do what?"

"Say 'Jupiter power, make up'."

Picking up the offered item, the tall girl looked it over, and firmed her resolve. "Jupiter power... make up!"

A flash of green light appeared, and when it was gone, there was a new Senshi, this one with a green skirted uniform, standing there.

* * *

"Looks like there is another one," commented one of the observation team.

One of the others nodded. "The higher ups'll just love this."

"Do we send in the backup?"

"Doesn't look like she needs it."

"If she can take on a monster like that in 'civilian' mode, that's entirely possible."

* * *

Mercenaries had always worked for whomever could give them the most of what they wanted. Most of the time, that was done through monetary means, but there were other options, such as giving them land, weapons, fancy goods, or a member of the opposite gender. Once the desired reward was given, then the mercenary would do the task as far as they could manage with their morals and willingness, which usually meant all the way.

One of these people was Mayborne, and he was someone who would work for anyone who would give him what he'd want. His loyalties were there, but he just gave them a lower importance than he did to what he could get out of what he was asked to do. Usually, that meant that he'd stay brought for however long it would take for him to get things done.

This time though, he was well aware of a better opportunity than working for some manipulative bastards. The fact was that they only cared about what situations would mean for their own positions, but he had something here that appealed to him. After all, this was his first chance to actually get some of the things that he'd always wanted. It was like offering a car fanatic their favorite model in mint condition, with only enough done to the car to keep it working in pristine condition.

There was no way that he was going to easily give that up, and he was certainly pleased with what he could be given through his association with Stargate Command. The technology that they were getting could actually make his boyhood fantasies a reality, and for anyone, that was a strong motivator. However, he knew that the big guys were planning something for the folk in the mountain, and that Hammond's crew had no idea about it. But, to simply warn them could ruin future opportunities, and quite honestly put them on their hit list.

But a simple note, given anonymously, but with too many facts to be ignored, would suffice quite nicely. They might not go as strongly as he might like, but he knew that they would at least be prepared for the possibility. That would make it much easier to handle later, and he would have to take that much.

Besides, it'd be fun to tweak the noses of those guys in charge of the 'rogue' elements.

* * *

"Oooh.... Trying to get some fun in before Nurse Minako returned?" asked the blonde as she smiled at the other two people in the room.

Hotaru blinked back at her from where she'd been helping Ranma eat soup. "What do you mean? And where did you get the nurse's uniform?"

"Like it? One of the soldiers found it for me. And as to what do you think I mean?"

"I can't say. I just don't know what you're trying to talk about."

"Ah, the innocence of true feeling...."

"Huh?"

Leaning in, Minako grinned at the pair. "Well, look at yourselves. You're hand feeding him, which is a very intimate thing...."

"Ummm.... Ya don't...." Ranma babbled. "It ain't like that!"

"I was trying to take care of him," the dark haired girl commented.

"And that's a good thing," the elder girl agreed.

"It is? Actually, yes, it is, but...."

"You couldn't have done more right!"

"Eh?"

"It's really quite simple. Two young people, alone, and letting their feelings be free.... And having to be in such close contract...."

"I...."

Minako reached out and looped an arm around each of them, pulling them into an embrace that had Hotaru and Ranma chest to chest, and face to face. When they realized what that meant, they blushed heavily, with the soup clattering down to the floor.

"That's exactly what I want to see," the blonde chirped, with a rueful glance down at the floor. "Even though it'll cost me a new pair of shoes...."

* * *

Stuffing his hands into his pockets, Jack O'Neill gave off a quiet snort.

"Problem, sir?" Carter asked.

"Not... well, yes, I do," the colonel replied.

Teal'c raised a brow. "Do you regret the decision to allow our guest to go out to shop?"

"You'd think that, but no, it's not that."

"I see, and am glad that you feel that way. I doubt that she will be a threat, and understand her desire to see more of this world. It also gives her an opportunity to be with Morisato in a relaxed setting."

"For which I'm really thankful for," Keiichi agreed.

"Indeed. But this excursion should not be a problem."

"It isn't the actual shopping that I'm having a problem with," Jack replied. "Or letting her get out from the base on a trip like this."

"Then what is it?" Daniel asked.

"Just look at this."

"What?"

"We head out to get to the van, and she makes friends with the bugs. Then when we get out of the van, squirrels and birds come up to see her. She takes the opportunity that going shopping out here in a rural area will give her, and gets visits from what seems like every animal in the woods. And now she has all these little creatures, from dogs wanting to nuzzle her, to butterflies landing on her finger. A 'low profile', this is _not_."

"I do see what you mean.... But it could be worse."

"I know. It's just that I'm expecting to see Bambi show up eventually."

"Oh, hello you little dear," murmured Belldandy as a fawn made its way over to her. She rubbed its head gently, and smiled as kindly as she could before she heard a groan. "Is something wrong?"

"We'll get back to you on that," Sam replied.

* * *

Sailor Jupiter watched as the purified boy was strapped to a gurney and was placed into a waiting ambulance. Once he was almost totally on, she glanced around at all the soldiers that had just seemed to pop up, before turning her attention to her newest friend. "Are you okay, Usagi-chan?"

"I'll be okay," the blonde replied as a medic attended to the small injuries that she'd gotten in the fight. "Are _you_ okay?"

"Me? I'm great! I mean, this is something that I could really get into. But you...."

"What?"

"You just seem so... _nice_."

"Why, thank you, Mako-chan!"

"You're welcome," the taller girl replied. "Still, there is one thing...."

"What is it? I did tell you about the others, right?"

"You did, and I'll be happy to get to know them. It's just with these soldiers...."

"What about them? Do you have a problem with them?" Luna asked expectantly, sounding almost hopeful.

"Sort of...."

"What is it?"

"I wonder if any of them have a girlfriend or wife. A lot of them are really cute!"

One wouldn't think that, with the natural grace of the species, a cat would be able to fall face first onto the ground, especially from a standing position. Luna managed to do it just fine.

"That would be a problem," a male voice commented. "There are rules against certain types of relations between two members of the same unit, and between a soldier and one he's been asked to guard, both of which apply to you now."

"Who is he?" Jupiter asked.

"Sosuke Sagara. He's the guy that they have in our school to protect and watch over us," Moon responded.

"He is?"

"Uh-huh. He might be really stiff, but he's a nice guy."

"Oh, I hope so."

"Huh? Why?"

"He looks like my old boyfriend," the emerald eyed girl sighed happily.

* * *

Ryvos was its name. A farmworld that supported several worlds where the mining was good but the arable land wasn't plentiful. Ryvos was a green and verdant world for the most part, a world of vast plains and rich soil. It wasn't a world that was powerful militarily, but it allowed that military to eat. One of Ares' worlds that was less harsh and less of interest to him, save that it WAS one of his worlds.

One of Ares' most loyal Jaffa was aboard the ha'tak as it exited hyperspace.

"Scan for anything and everything," Vydine commanded. "Let me know if you even suspect a cloaked vessel. Full shields up. Charge forward turrets so they're ready. Let me know the moment you find something out of the ordinary."

"Is that Ryvos?" asked one of the lesser Jaffa. "Isn't it supposed to be green?"

Vydine looked over the display and frowned. "Yes. I was there a decade ago. Approach to within lunar distance then remain stationary."

Long minutes passed before the lesser Jaffa spoke again. "It looks... dead."

"Looks like something happened all right," said another lesser Jaffa. "There's some sort of asteroid passing through the system, currently passing the fourth planet on its way outsystem."

"Ring down an explorer team, then pursue," ordered Vydine. "I'll send a message with the team to relay our findings to Lord Ares."

* * *

It was one thing to see the local fauna acting as friendly as could be towards the young alien.

Daniel noticed something else. "Did you see back there?"

"People smiling a lot more in our wake?" asked Jack. "That traffic cop ripping up a ticket she'd just written?"

"Right," said Daniel. "People just generally seeming to perk up after we've walked by?"

"Coincidence?" said Samantha almost hopefully. The way birds seemed to talk to the alien, and the way she talked back to them - this did not fit any scientific paradigm she wanted to face at the moment.

"Did you not theorize some form of broadcast emotional well-being?" asked Teal'c.

"Yeah, I think that's what we're seeing," said Daniel. "She doesn't seem to intend to do it, it's just sort of innate."

"Okay," said Samantha, working that out. How could she test that? Quantify it. Reduce it to the mathematical level.

"Oh, you poor thing," said Belldandy, laying her hand on a tree.

"It's just a dead tree," observed Jack.

"No," said Belldandy, "the poor thing is still struggling to live."

Janet Frasier, who so far on this trip had been having nearly as bad a time as Samantha, spoke up from where she'd been quietly observing. "The tree may still technically be alive, but it's old and it probably won't last very long. It being in a public park means the city will clear it away soon."

"I understand," said Belldandy, apparently speaking to the tree. "I'll help."

"'Help'?" asked Jack, Daniel, Teal'c, Janet, and Samantha. Then looking at each other for doing that unrehearsed in unison like that.

"How 'help?'" asked Jack, thinking he wouldn't like the answer.

Sam glanced back at the unmarked van, hoping they were recording this.

Belldandy looked to Jack and smiled. "I'll sing."

* * *

Genma took a breather from his training, letting the young boys and girls go through their motions with those he'd appointed as beginning soldiers watching over them.

Especially that Bre'tac. Genma had watched carefully and decided that if he ever had to face the Master again, Bre'tac would be the one Genma would want to lead the charge. Not that the old Master scared him - of course not. It was just that the Master would know all Genma's moves ahead of time, and Bre'tac was a lot more comfortable with the idea of shooting someone with one of those staff weapons.

Genma smiled as the facilities took shape. Admittedly those working on it were only working on it a few hours a day - the remainder of that time spent in training or in taking care of their primary business. In order to make this dojo/training facility to specification, many other things had to be built in the meantime.

The streams provided water and were harnessed by the watermills. Windmills were built, though with memories of the recent storm - nobody was sure how to strengthen them with native materials to the point where things would survive. The ancient powerplant delivered its electricity, and the little community slowly grew.

Life, decided Genma, was good.

* * *

The ha'tak vessel moved in at high speeds. When energy flared up from the surface of the asteroid, that was all the sign they needed.

"Target the source of that weapons fire, obliterate it," said Vydine.

"Our shields just went down, something's happening in the engine room," responded the lesser Jaffa.

Vydine looked up as the lights went dim. "What kind of weapon are they using?"

"I have an intruder alarm at Engineering," said a Jaffa. "Jaffa are responding."

"Was that some sort of teleportation then?" asked Vydine. "Have all Jaffa prepare to-"

"The reactor's going to-"

* * *

"More of these boring targets with pathetic starseeds," pouted Sailor Iron Mouse.

"We'll find some better ones soon, I think," said her Mistress.

* * *

The van was manned by scientists, female ones as General Hammond had recently put forth a recruit-female-personnel directive. With the result that select female scientists, soldiers, technicians, etcetera were now being courted by various recruiters. As far as reasons given, it was part of an outreach program that Hammond had apparently planned for some time. There were records going back to the sixties about how he felt that more women would benefit the Air Force and armed services in general. Now he was stating that with the joint operations in highly technical fields and some classified project working with the Japanese Self-Defense Force - it was an ideal time to act on those beliefs.

Of course, post-Hathor - the military command had a different reason for seeing things from Hammond's point-of-view and some who might have objected earlier were less likely to raise those objections. There might be other Goa'uld Queens out there, after all.

There had only been a few days since Hathor, almost a week. There hadn't been more than a trickle so far. Some merely balked at the non-disclosure and classified status. Some held viewpoints that would have placed them antagonistic to the military or unlikely to hold to such agreements.

The ones who WERE trickling in, were finding that their lives as nerds or geeks were now achieving some of their wildest dreams. Though some were having the same problems as Janet and Samantha were.

Especially under current circumstances.

In a public park in Colorado Springs, standing before a dying tree, Belldandy sang.

Images of vines in what looked like circuit board configurations flickered into the air around her. Glowing sigils sped through those pathways, combining and shifting direction.

#Yggdrasil access confirmed. Identification: Belldandy. Pathway secure. Program loaded.#

Samantha Carter realized what she was looking at. The psionic computer network that the Vanir had described.

Daniel Jackson realized what he was looking at. Yggdrasil, a tree which connected worlds. Had the ancient Norse heard of this and interpreted it in such a manner?

Jack realized what he was looking at. "Oh man, security cleanup on this is gonna be a pain."

Teal'c realized what he was looking at. They did indeed have a chance of defeating the Goa'uld. A faint smile appeared on his face that had nothing to do with telempathic broadcasts.

Janet realized what she was looking at. A tree putting out new branches and greenery as she watched. "Who the heck needs a sarcophogus anyway?" The possibilities of this, if she could learn any of it!

The women in the van realized what they were looking at. Mainly screens of data their instruments were putting together. "I could spend my life just analyzing this afternoon's data," said one in an awed voice. "And to think I was reluctant to hire on here when I had an offer from Sony."

"Heck, I was working at 'Hooters' prior to graduation," said another. "What? Hey, it paid the bills."

* * *

Genma scratched his head. "What other student? I was the only one training under the dreaded Master."

"Are you sure?"

Genma scrutinized the treeline, wondering why someone would even be asking about this. "Unless..."

"Ah?" asked the diplomat.

Genma was sure of it now. Either a bar tab or some other expense, come back to haunt him. Well, he'd used this before. "You might be referring to Jo."

"Joe?" asked the diplomat.

"Yes, yes, briefly travelled with us. Bit of a clumsy fellow. Always getting into trouble," lied Genma. "Jo was a sumo specialist. Big portly fellow. Forget his last name. Toriyama or something like that."

After the diplomat finally found an excuse to leave, Genma let out a deep breath. Like he wanted creditors to come after him now. Besides, wasn't there a statute of limitations or something?


	13. Chapter 13: Sister

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Chapter 13: Sisters

* * *

Being the commander of a military base was never an easy task, as there was not only paperwork to deal with. Every decision that one made could determine how the lives of those under his command would go, and whether they would live or die. Everything that went on during his tenure at that place would be his or her responsibility, and the very idea that it would solve itself could not be followed.

General Hammond knew this all too well, and was aware that he had to do something. If he left well enough alone, it turned into something expected, and an enemy could take advantage of that. He sure as hell didn't want a repeat of what had happened with Hathor. Having such a high percentage of males on staff had made it easy for her, and that factor could easily be used again.

But he had a plan for that already in the works. That had been started, but he wanted to speed up the process. As it was, he had a lot of trouble getting qualified personnel, and that meant that something had to be done. He had done some work on that problem, and as he checked his messages, he looked for anything from those he had contacted.

What caught his eye though was one particular e-mail. This one was full of information, but not of the type that he had been looking for. As he read, his jaw clenched, and he found himself wanting to haul the writer of it in. However, he couldn't do that, as it had been sent anonymously. But it was clearly not a fake, as it discussed certain things, like the initial talks on who should control the Stargate, the trouble that they'd had with the logistics in moving the refugees, and other little things.

The thing that was really important though was why it had been written. Had he not heard of what this message had to say, he would have been taken totally by surprise. With it though, he could put up some kind of defense. And even if it was a fake, being cautious could only be helpful in this instance.

Fortunately, he was in the middle of proving that he could easily learn from his mistakes.

* * *

Keiichi sat in the room that had been set aside for Belldandy, and idly looked at the droning television with a sigh. She had stepped out for a moment, but she knew that he was there, so there was no need to worry about that. Of course, just sitting around was rather dull, though being able to be around her was rather special. He supposed that it was odd that the first girl to really pay attention to him was an alien, but she was really nice, and he liked her a lot. Leaning back in his chair and looking up at the ceiling, he hoped that his relationship with her would be better than he usually did with girls. But he'd never been much of a ladies' man, and even though he knew that the other guys wouldn't mind giving him 'pointers', he was pretty sure that no one was going to pop up to tell him what would be the right thing to do.

Then an odd thing happened, as he heard something that sounded a bit odd coming from right in front of him. Frowning a bit in confusion, he tried to place the sound, but he found that he couldn't. So he shrugged as he lowered his head to look and see what had happened.

As soon as he did so, he saw a beautiful tanned face with three marks on it looking back at him.

"Hmmmm.... Her energy is here, and so are you," the newcomer said with a sultry smile. "You must be her man."

"GAH!" Keiichi yelped, falling backwards out of the chair, and onto the floor.

"My, my, my.... So excitable...."

Belldandy rushed in, looking worried as she glanced over the scene. "What's going on? Keiichi, are you alright? I heard.... Urd! What are you doing here?"

"Just checking up on my dear sister."

'_That_ is Belldandy's sister?' Keiichi thought to himself as he stumbled to his feet.

* * *

"Assignments, sir?" Carter asked as she stood in front of the General's desk.

Hammond nodded back at her. "Yes, Captain. That's what I said."

"You want us to go to colleges on recruiting drives?"

"Pretty much."

"With all due respect," Janet murmured, glancing over at her friend before turning all her attention back to their commanding officer. "Why us, sir?"

"The two of you are highly ranked officers in this command, and are given a great deal of responsibility with it. If there are many women in higher positions, let me know about it."

"I see, sir."

Sam frowned. "But still. Giving talks at an engineering college?"

"We need scientists and engineers that are female, as well as physicians. Where else can we get young women who would be starting their careers with us?" the General asked.

"That's true, sir, and I admit that much. But I'm not certain that we are the best choices for the job."

"And why is that?"

"Well sir, we can't really tell them anything. All I can tell a civilian, and a lot of of the other enlisted personnel is that I work in 'deep space radar telemetry'. And any work that they'd do would likely stay secret for a long time. That isn't something that many people get excited about."

"If they do get excited, then all the better," he told her. "But you don't have to really tell them what you do. The important thing is for them to understand that we need women who are skilled in what _they_ do. Considering the fact that they'd really be on the cutting edge of research, and have a chance for their careers to really go somewhere."

"It could be done that way, but why send us out?" Janet asked.

"We need to even out the gender balance here ladies, and there's no better way to do it than to hire women. This," Hammond said, putting his hand, palm down, on a stack of folders, "are a number of military candidates, from both the service, and the academy. _Them_ we can just have assigned here, and be able to check their background at any time that we want. However, the second that we do a routine check on a civilian, red flags start popping up. If they are already applying for positions with us...."

"Then we'd be expected to check them out."

"Exactly. There is just one thing though. This is not up for discussion. The two of you are going to see if you can pull them from corporate jobs to work for us."

"Understood, sir," the two women chorused.

"Good. Now that we won't have any problems with...."

"Uh... sir?" Harriman interrupted, knocking on the door as he came in. "I'm sorry to bother you, but there is an urgent matter that's come up."

"What sort of 'matter'?"

"Belldandy's sister has come to visit."

"Her 'sister'? You sure?"

"Blue marks on her face. Appeared out of nowhere. Knew which room was our guest's. Belldandy confirmed it. Yes sir, she is her sister."

Hammond looked towards Carter and Frasier, sharing a moment of surprise between them.

* * *

Samantha Carter was one of the most technically brilliant individuals in the United States. Within her field, she was very highly regarded by all those who actually knew of her.

She needed some time off.

The same went for Janet Fraiser. She wasn't the best doctor in the United States, she wasn't the most brilliant or the most diverse, but she was certainly well regarded by those peers who knew her.

She also needed some time off.

Trying to interrogate Urd was going to UP that factor.

"So you just came here to visit your sister?" asked Samantha Carter.

"That's right," agreed Urd. "Why do you have your commander and those technicians behind a polarized glass anyway?"

"You can see them?" asked Janet, realizing that alien eyes didn't need to see in the same frequencies as humans.

"Of course," said Urd. "Oh. I wasn't supposed to? Hardly seems friendly. Oops."

"'oops'?" asked Samantha, thinking that this coming from a 'goddess' was not a good thing.

"I forgot my gift," said Urd. "You still do that right? When visiting the het of another clan, you bring a gift to signify your peaceful intentions to be given to the clan chief right? Let's see..."

Janet opened her mouth to say that that was not one of their customs, and that they were NOT vikings any more.

Samantha, proving she was capable of quick thinking and knew her friend, put her hand over Janet's mouth. "We can do that."

"Very well," said Urd, reaching out her hand with a look of concentration.

The hand seemed to reach into something, the air rippling like water or the event horizon of a stargate, and then it was pulling something else out.

"What's this?" asked Samantha as she was handed what looked like a little perfume bottle.

"Urd's Number Nine," said Urd with a wink. "Special Love Potion. One drop will make your man... No?"

Samantha couldn't help but shove the bottle back, quite obviously revolted beyond her ability to conceal it. "No."

Urd sighed and tucked the vial into her cleavage. "Well, okay, but I think both of you need a good roll in the sheets. You both look quite stressed out."

"We're fine," said Janet. "Can we get back to why you came here? What your intentions are?"

"I'm here, as I said, to visit my sister," said Urd, "my intentions are to act the proper goddess of love and get my sister over her shyness problem with her young man. All these fumbling conversations leading nowhere - that's no way to live!"

"I thought Urd was the goddess of fate," said Janet.

Urd shrugged. "If you want to get technical, perhaps. Goddess of the past. My job is data analyst and system administrator in temporal fields. My specialties are biochemistry, n-field manipulations of superstructures, and audio-visual equipment. Maybe..." _SNAP!_

_FWOMP! BA-BUMF!_

Samantha and Janet stared at a portion of their anatomy. "EEEEEEEEEEEEK!"

In the booth, General Hammond gaped. Technician Harriman dropped his pencil.

"What, not this either?" asked Urd, intrigued now. This would be a challenge.

"Turn them back," said Samantha, pointing to a certain part of her anatomy. "I don't need bigger breasts."

_snap!_ _Shoompf!_ "Your boyfriend would love them, but then..." Urd's voice trailed off as she looked at the two. "Neither of you have boyfriends do you?"

"Well, no," said Janet, who'd been a little less anxious - mainly because of the tests she could have run. A nonsurgical method of enlarging breasts? If the method could be duplicated, the revenue could potentially put the Stargate program into such a profit margin that they'd never be shut down.

The gleam in her eyes would have caused people who knew her to flee. "Don't worry, the cupid of love is here."

"I thought 'Freya' was the goddess of love," said Janet.

"To some extent, earlier it was Astrild, but try explaining this to a bunch of ice-encrusted barbarians trying to eke out a living in a land without a lot of natural resources," said Urd, thinking of certain possibilities.

Neither Janet nor Samantha had psychic powers. Nonetheless, the two suddenly felt that accepting General Hammond's assignment to go speak at colleges was probably something they should get busy on.

* * *

Sailor Pluto was the guardian of the Time Gates. Those artifacts dealt with a single solar system and regulated temporal flow. Their original purpose had been to wrinkle out paradox ripples and keep time travel from occurring without special access.

Mainly because the original builders of the Gates had realized that if you went around violating Causality, it was a major headache for all involved.

Sipping a nice cup of tea, and watching a soap opera (this involving a fictional ten year old English wizard sent to teach a Junior High group of girls in English), Sailor Pluto was a picture of contentment.

Up until a ripple reached the Gates. "WHATTT?!"

Sailor Pluto had just discovered that Sailor Saturn was active.

* * *

"Where'd he go?" asked Minako, peering around over the top of a heap of bandages she was carrying. "He was here a minute ago!"

Hotaru started looking around herself, but she also reminded herself that SHE had been the one asking for help. "He's probably still here."

Minako set the bandages, gauze, adhesive, clips, and bowl of steaming fluid on the bed. "What, he's hiding in your closet?"

"No, he's done his invisibility technique before," explained Hotaru. "I think he was a little alarmed when you boiled the hydrogen peroxide."

* * *

D'anna was a survivor. Sitting on an island she could cross from end to end inside twelve minutes if she took her time, which was one of a handful of such on this cursed planet, she had lost her uniform and her Death Glider recently. Down to underthings and the contents of a survival kit, she was surviving on fish and whatever water she could collect from the frequent rains.

More than once she'd considered swimming to another island. There was one over there, a smidge on the horizon.

It was probably the same size as her current island, had no additional resources. That was not the reason she hadn't tried to do so.

Land animals had not evolved particularly due to the small amount of planetary surface area not occupied by water. The aquatic species had developed pretty well though.

She decided to call the big guys with all the teeth - apepi. With those jaws and teeth it was quite obviously a predator. It could also swallow her whole without half an effort.

D'anna saw another apepi crest, something with a lot of tentacles hanging from its mouth as it cleared the water briefly, and not for the first time regretted that she hadn't simply surrendered to the Tau'ri.

* * *

The forces of justice stood ready.

None of the team of special ops soldiers assembled into this team had a problem with that. Most of them really liked that angle of things actually. Some did have sincere reservations that they were artillery backup for a bunch of little girls who proclaimed themselves 'pretty warriors of love'. Actually, most of them had a problem with that last part.

Okay, one was a human flamethrower, another threw blasts of some unknown energy, the third could lay down some fogbank that messed with IR and normal sight, and the new fourth member blasted things with lightning. Still, it wasn't the fact that these were fourteen year old girls and they were backing THEM up that didn't sit well with most of the soldiers.

It was the whole 'pretty soldiers of love' thing.

"She's not going to hit it with another of those crystal pink hearts is she?" asked a Sergeant.

"Yup," agreed his fellow.

"Can't we get her a nice, oh I don't know, a sword or something?" asked the Sergeant. "Killing something in a cutesy manner like that - it's got to be against the Geneva Convention or something."

"Already checked and couldn't find anything about killing your opponents in a dignified manner," said the other soldier. "Now if they surrendered - yes. Different thing altogether."

* * *

"It's nice to see that they decided that I can get out of that place," Urd sighed. "What could _I_ do?"

"Other than just popping up in a room with no warning?" Daniel Jackson asked as politely as he could manage.

"That wasn't something that I meant to cause any trouble. I just thought that a surprise visit would be rather interesting. Wouldn't you?"

"A 'surprise' isn't always what we want around here."

"What? Have you been having any trouble with pretty ladies showing up?"

"Actually... yes, we have," the archeologist replied. "The last time that someone came here with absolutely no warning, she tried to turn all us guys into Jaffa, and the women into.... well.... Her method of enslaving us made them into... treasures for her."

The Asgard woman made an expression of disgust. "That sort of thing is left to those who don't know finesse, and ignore the feelings of people."

"True.... But would you have done it differently?"

"What?"

"You know all sorts of things, right?"

"But of course I do! I am just a fountain of wisdom, don't you know."

"Then maybe we will ask you for help. There is a lot that we don't know, and pressing Belldandy for information...." Daniel shook his head.

"I know what you mean. Trying to push her into anything isn't really necessary, since she will help you if you ask, but there comes a point when you think that you're going to burden her too much...."

"Pretty much."

"Well then, what do you have?" Urd asked him. "Lots of little bits of pottery?"

"Not only that. We do get things that might interest you."

"Why wouldn't pottery interest me? They put on the most interesting figures, a lot of times in stories where the...."

"I know what you mean. But those aren't our problems. You see, we have a lot of stuff that we need to classify, so that we can figure out what the culture that used them was like."

"Oh?"

"Pretty much. Like... I still haven't translated what this says," he told her, holding up a piece of stone with writing carved into it. "Now, we think that it is a history of the planet...."

"More like mythology."

"Pardon me?"

She tapped a fingernail on a line of text. "This part here? It talks about 'ten dragons of heaven' facing off against 'ten dragons of earth' in a contest to see whose power would guide the future of the world."

"I see.... What about this bracelet?"

"Pretty in a way."

"The material seems to be...."

"Made to mimic something else. The original was supposed to enhance the psychic powers of a person, but this? It's just a prop, used in some sort of show," Urd told him.

"Oh."

"You have anything else?"

"Plenty. Like this. As far as I can tell, it was used for some sort of special beverage...."

"It's a drink mixer."

"Huh?"

"You mix drinks, right? This is what you do it in. If you want to have a cocktail party, that's your artifact."

"To be honest with you, I don't need to be getting into that sort of thing," Jackson replied.

"Why not? You're an attractive male, and there are some lovely women around...."

"Sorry, but that's out of the question."

"Why? Don't you think that they are pretty enough? I mean, there are that Carter woman, and her doctor friend."

"Both of them are colleagues, and there are rules about that sort of thing, even if I would want to get involved with them."

"Then why aren't there some women around here that you can date?"

Daniel took off his glasses and gave her a level look. "I'm married, and I love my wife. But seeing as she's been taken over by a Goa'uld, and is currently being held in a cell here, my 'romantic situation' isn't going to go anywhere."

"A Goa'uld? Nasty creatures. So greedy for everything that they take over bodies without any regard for the host. Never mind that they can share control with the person that they are inhabiting."

"They can?"

"They can. But there is one thing."

"What's that?"

"If you have her here, why don't you get that parasite out of her?"

"And I'm sure that you have a way of doing that."

"You're right on that."

The pencil that Daniel had just picked up dropped to the floor. "Excuse me?"

"Well, not me in particular, but the Asgard do have the ability to pull it out of her."

He just stared at her.

"What? I thought that you knew about this already."

* * *

Dressing in uniforms was never something that General Hammond had a problem with, but he had to admit that dress uniforms could be a problem for many people. They tended to be more made as a way to show off for those who were watching, by creating the most formal outfit possible. However, as he had become a general, he had spent a lot of time in situations that called for him to be wearing them. So, as he finished fastening his last button, he wasn't too put out about it.

A knock on the door made him turn to see Jack O'Neill standing there, with a brow raised.

"Looking spiffy there, sir. Have a party to get to?" the other officer asked.

"Something like that," Hammond answered with a small shrug. "A reporter by the name of Julia Donovan is planning on interviewing me for a piece that she is doing on my efforts to have more female personnel be hired for this command."

"And a noble thing that it is that you're doing. But there is just one thing. What are you going to tell them? It isn't like we're doing research."

"Who says that I really have to say anything? I'll just keep to the cover stories, and give her the appropriate 'I can't answer that' answers. Besides, this will be our chance to drum up support for what we do."

"Sir?"

"Colonel, I trust you implicitly, so understand why I can't tell you everything. But you should know this. There are people out there who don't like the way that I run this command, and would like to think that they should be in charge."

Jack looked thoughtful for a moment, and then smiled broadly. "I hope to see you on every channel, sir."

"Thank you, colonel. Though.... Where are our newest guests?"

"Daniel's with our latest arrival, and Belldandy's with Carter."

"That should be no problem then."

* * *

Samantha Carter looked at the alien who was in her lab, and tried to not sigh. "You really don't have to do this."

"Is there a problem with me helping out?" Belldandy asked in concern.

"Not really, but still.... We have hired people to do these sorts of things."

"But it's no trouble at all. I like helping out, and this is actually quite pleasant."

"I just have to wonder if this is really proper."

"Oh, I'm certain that it will be fine," the Vanir told her with a bright smile.

That left the captain to stare dully as a super powered alien girl cleaned her lab.

* * *

"So, General Hammond, what reason do you have for trying to recruit women specifically to the armed forces?"

You couldn't tell from his expression that General Hammond would rather be facing a Jaffa squadron than this slender young woman and her cameraman. "I'm sure you know, Miss Donovan, that the armed forces are primarily male. I've long put forward that not having more women within the military is an undesirable situation."

"Some would say you just want more of an 'eye candy' factor," said Donovan.

"Hardly," said General Hammond. "Or are you stating that women can't be as patriotic or capable as men can?"

"I'm definitely not saying that," said Julia. "Yet this isn't a combat post, your command deals with something called 'deep space telemetry'?"

"Are you familiar with the events that killed the dinosaurs?" asked General Hammond. "For that matter there are several other instances where a meteor or asteroid impacted the Earth. Part of our job is in the finding and tracking of things from space which could prove to have an impact here on Earth."

"'part' of the job?" followed up Julia.

"There are also spy satellites and the like, which we identify and catalog, and track. One of the reasons our work is as highly classified as it is," added General Hammond, giving more cover story.

"So that this is a noncombat post means you're afraid of putting women in harm's way," tried Julia, still looking for an angle to exploit.

"No, not at all," disagreed General Hammond. "If it would serve the country's best interest, I would not hesitate. If it would not, I would hesitate to put any of my soldiers in danger."

"According to my research, you've been stating this belief that more women should be in the military since... 1969," said Julia, checking her notes. "That's quite a long time ago. Why now?"

"I've only recently gotten to this command, and even then it took me some time to get an ear with my superiors," said General Hammond. "I've convinced a few that times have changed, and the military has to change as well. Since we're doing highly technical work with cutting edge technology, we're primarily focussing on women who want some experience in engineering and the sciences. Yet we're also looking for women to staff the soldiering part of running a base."

"So these aren't 'fluff' jobs," concluded Donovan.

"Not at all," agreed Hammond.

* * *

A room away, some others watched the interview unfold.

"(He's putting forth his case, but she seems to want to dig in and ferret out a few secrets,)" said Keiichi in Japanese.

Daniel Jackson responded in lightly accented (Hokkaido) Japanese. "(That's her job, or at least that's what most of them say their job is. A lot of the press is hostile towards the military and depict them in as negative a light as they can.)"

"(I hope this goes well,)" said Keiichi. "(I haven't known General Hammond very long, but he seems quite honorable.)"

As if she'd been speaking that language her whole life, Belldandy responded. "(I'll pray for his success.)"

Daniel looked very nervous for a moment, but other than Belldandy clasping her hands in front of her, nothing seemed to be happening. Even if they were seperated by a wall and watching on monitors, there had been some serious opposition to this. However it had been Belldandy's own idea to cheer the General on from the sidelines.

Daniel Jackson relaxed, and so did the various guards. Absolutely nothing was happening.

* * *

Urd tsked over the primitive conditions here. While not quite as bad as sod walls and a thatch roof, it was still not exactly up to standards. "Well, I've worked with worse."

"So you can help us?" asked Samantha, a little skeptical that the 'vamp' she'd seen hitting on several Marines was capable in this regard despite being a Vanir.

"Within very very limited areas," said Urd. "You understand that there are treaties and laws handed down with regard to exactly what we can show you?"

"That's what I hear," said Samantha.

"So we can't do a lot of things," said Urd, sitting down and making a dismissing gesture. "Why I can't even tell you about N33-241, which is a tropical paradise that would be perfect for you to take some guy to."

Samantha Carter was ready to dismiss the comment when she realized she had been just given a valid Stargate address. "Oh? That's too bad."

"I couldn't possibly tell you about any of the dangers in space, even little details like K24-010 being a wasteland where a nearby supernova irradiated the land to levels that would even reduce your little robot units to inoperative scrap," said Urd. "You wouldn't believe how frustrating that can be."

"I'll bet," said Samantha, surreptiously turning a tape recorder on.

"I couldn't even mention N32-041," said Urd. "A romantic getaway if ever there was one."

Samantha frowned. "Why couldn't you tell us about something like that? It's hardly interfering in our culture to mention locations with nice scenery."

"You have to find your own destiny," said Urd. "Which is frustrating. You see people making the same old mistakes and you just want to help out, but those are the rules."

* * *

Ten hours later, the Technician was looking at the screens in front of him. "Receiving MALP telemetry."

Jack looked over his shoulder, stifling a yawn. "Where's Carter?"

"On her way to MIT," said Daniel, after a particularly large yawn himself.

"Late night?" asked Jack.

"Yeah," said Daniel, now stretching. "Pottery shards which apparently have more meaning than I had thought."

"Ah," said Jack. "Here we go."

The screen began showing the video feed from the MALP.

"Looks tropical," said Jack, eyeing white sands, palm trees, crystalline waters.

Daniel nodded. "Yeah, kinda reminds me of the Bahamas."

"It appears... pleasant," allowed Teal'c, not yawning at all.

"I think we should explore this lead, it could be important," said Jack, thinking this looked considerably more promising than some of the worlds they'd explored.

"I agree," said Daniel, thinking along those lines himself.

"It is a pity that Captain Carter would not be able to accompany us," said Teal'c.

"Send the UAV," said General Hammond, thinking it had been awhile since he'd been out in the field and that might be just the remedy for a long interview with a reporter.

"Launching UAV," said the Technician, who was thinking that maybe they could find some valuable resources here that would require more people to explore it.

The rapidly growing crowd continued to watch the video feed.

"Maybe five miles square," said Daniel.

"Sir," said Jack, going as stiffly military as he could on short notice and saluting the General. "Permission to investigate this site and discover if N33-241 has some military significance?"

"Hmmm, can you get a look to the right?" asked the General.

The Technician obligingly adjusted the UAV's flight.

"Looks like other islands, a chain of them." Jack pointed at something in the sky. "What's that?"

"Too far away to tell," apologized the Technician after fiddling with the UAV's controls. "The Stargate will shut down before we get anywhere near that."

"Colonel O'Neill, you have permission. Take a scientific team with you. We'll want to determine if those waters are safe before we attempt to investigate further," said the General, thinking that maybe he could go check up on their progress himself a little later. When he was off duty. With a hammock strung between those two trees there.

"Yes sir," said Jack, a little enthusiasm showing. Let's see. Sun tan lotion probably would be good too. "We'll be sure to test the waters!"

"Indeed," agreed Teal'c.

* * *

Keiichi was well aware of the importance of the trip that he was on. The Americans had thought it possible that one of the Vanir would be able to help them with discovering what was going on with those 'Sailor Senshi', and since they had some on the planet already, there was no question about making it so that they could meet. It was easier to move the aliens around the planet, rather than to just bring the girls over, as suddenly transporting teens across the ocean was a bit too obvious for anyone's taste. The Japanese government agreed with the whole idea, and went along with it.

As everyone knew that Urd was of the sort to tell a stuffy senator that he needed to go and get 'some fun in the bedroom' to unwind, none of them thought that she would be a good choice for this trip.

That meant that he got to go back to Japan, as he went where Belldandy did. A part of him was actually looking forward to it, as he wanted to show her all the sights that he could. However, he was aware that it wasn't like he was going to be able to get out and do that. And it wasn't like they were travelling alone.

"Why are they making you travel with us?" he asked the head of their escort. "Wouldn't this be a problem for you?"

Lieutenant Kanunka Clancy gave him a level look. "I'm part Japanese, can speak the language and my grandmother is living there at the moment. That makes it believable that I'd go, and easy for me to interact with the others."

"You do have a point.... But what are we supposed to say about me going back with her? I mean, I know the real reason, but...."

"It's really quite simple. You're just going back to give in some reports to your superiors, and handle some personal business. And since your commanding officer back in America is so nice, they've decided to let you bring your girlfriend along, so that you can let her see what Japan is like."

"Really?"

"We want as little attention on her as possible, understand?"

"Of course. I was just worrying about how things might go. Security wise, I mean," he murmured, glancing over at where Belldandy was looking at the plane they were on.

"That's my job. Leave it to me."

Looking at her, Keiichi actually felt a bit more comfortable about the situation as a whole.

* * *

Giving speeches was something that Samantha Carter had done many times before. During the two years that she had been pushing for resources to be put into the Stargate program, she had talked to a lot of different people, and had to shake hands with a great many individuals. When actually doing the speech, she was able to call on her confidence and experience to talk to whomever she had to at that point. But there was something that even she found worrisome, and that was the asking of questions that would usually follow, though that was usually a small concern.

Now, she was having to explain to people that couldn't know what she really did on a daily basis just why it was so important for them to go into a field like 'deep space radar telemetry'.

"Now, let me get this straight," commented one young woman, sarcasm lacing every word that she spoke. "You want us to get into the military because it's a good idea?"

"It's better than that," Carter replied.

"And how is that? I mean, sure you told us that we could have great careers in leading fields, but what's so wonderful about that? I could get a job with a defense contractor, and do the same thing."

"That is true, but there are things that even contractors can do that the military can."

A loud snort came from a woman who sat with her arms crossed over her breasts. "Really? And what has the military done with you, their 'special' officer. Dropped you into a job that's totally behind the scenes, letting their good old boys do the 'real' work."

"Is that how you think it is?"

"That _is_ how it is."

Samantha leveled a look on all of them that spoke of experiences that none of them had in their relatively sheltered lives. "I'll have you know that I graduated at the top of my class in the Academy, which makes me the best cadet of that graduating year. Then I flew one hundred hours in enemy air space during the Gulf War. And the position that I have now is one that is not only in my field, but is what I have always wanted, which should be clear since I pushed to make it happen."

"You wanted to be behind the lines?" a girl who looked almost like she should have been in high school asked.

"It was a trade off to either work in the research aspect, or to go out to some military attack. But I chose what I wanted, and I'm very happy that I did. Now, I work with people who respect my judgement, and turn to me whenever I can help them. My immediate commander actually turns to me for technical information all the time."

"He's in charge, but doesn't know?"

"His job isn't to analyze anything, but to make sure that the job gets done, and he knows it. To him, it doesn't matter that I'm a woman, or that I know more things than he does. So long as I do my job, and am a professional, that aspect of the position is fine by him."

"And other times?"

"He's constantly trying to get me to go fishing," Sam admitted, giving the young women a wry grin. "He doesn't understand why I don't think that sitting around on a dock with a rod and reel is not such an interesting thing for me. Something about men, I guess."

A round of giggles came back to her.

"But my whole team believes in what I know, and none of them think that I'm just a woman. In the command that I'm in, we don't have to worry about someone's gender. We all get along, and are allowed to work with our talents as it works best."

"In 'deep space telemetry'?" asked a redhead.

"You'd be surprised how much work that would take out of your day. There are not only asteroids, and our satellites, but there are satellites up there from everyone else, and the junk that we left up there during the decades since man went up into space."

"That much."

"Yes, but that's just me. There are a lot of things that other people are doing there as well. And each of them works together to do a lot of good. Plus, we not only get to be the ones with our work, but we are expected to find new ways to build and do things. Think of it. A lab where you get to work as yourself, without all the concerns that someone will treat you horribly since you are young and female. It would be your work, and unless someone does something that he'd be stuck in the brig for, you would get recognition for it."

The answering murmur had tones of approval in it, and the girls seemed to be impressed with what she had to say. That was the best that she could hope for, and she was glad to see that it was happening. She was aware that it didn't guarantee that they would come but they would likely thing about it. She just hoped that the situation was going in the General's favor.

* * *

The stack of files was almost three inches thick, and they were only the latest set to come across General Hammond's desk. Each one was from a woman soldier who was looking to be transferred over to his command. Apparently, with all the times that his interview had been on the air, he'd been seen as the sort of commander that a woman would want to have. Such a situation was good for him, since a lot of the women were of the sort that he would need.

A knock on the door alerted him to the fact that he was not alone. "Yes?"

"Sorry to bother you, sir," Harriman answered, sounding rather apologetic. "But word has come down that you have been picked to be in charge of being the face of the plans to level out the... 'gender' situation."

"Me?"

"Yes, sir. Apparently, you are seen as a strong and believable person, with that interview that you did. And...."

"What?"

"There are some high level female politicians who are putting their backing behind you."

"Are they now?"

"Yes, they are."

Hammond leaned back in his chair and smiled.

* * *

Systems came back online. "Shion?"

"You're awake?" asked Shion, moving to where the android could see her. "That took a lot out of you."

"Human opponent Ranma Saotome has considerable potential," admitted Kos-Mos. "Full measure of capabilities has now been downloaded and elimination is possible if deemed necessary."

"I don't think 'elimination' should be considered lightly," said a slightly alarmed Shion. "If at all."

"Noted," said Kos-Mos as unemotionally as she'd discussed terminating Ranma earlier.

Shion shivered. Kos-Mos looked human, but this was a reminder that she was not - she was an android built of alien technologies and did not have human scruples. Cold, precise, and logical.

Kos-Mos blue eyes regarded Shion briefly, then an eyeblink later returned to the normal red hue. Shion didn't notice.

* * *

N33-241___

Colonel Jack O'Neill, Teal'c, and Daniel Jackson were first through the Stargate. Following them were a botanist, a biologist, and a barbarian.

Konan immediately began checking the ground. In the soft sands there were no impressions to indicate something used the Stargate. He checked the area more carefully, then went back to the group.

"Nothing major," indicated Konan. "Small animals. Biggest looks like some wild pig from the tracks."

"Pig?" asked Daniel, picturing a luau.

"I'll find one for you," said Konan, taking that as his cue. He very quickly vanished into the underbrush.

"For someone that size, he moves pretty quickly," commented Jack. "Okay, keep an eye out for fliers or something our Cimmerian friend wouldn't find traces of."

"Indeed," agreed Teal'c. "Arboreal creatures would not necessarily leave tracks on the ground."

"Tree dwellers?" asked Daniel, eyeing the dense foliage.

"Hmmmm," said the botanist, examining some flowers nearby.

"You two are new to the program so just stick with Daniel and Teal'c," said Jack to the two female recent recruits. "Daniel, take the biologist to that lagoon the UAV spotted. Teal'c - just keep an eye on her."

* * *

It had been quickly determined that Ranma had fled the residence. An open window from which a trail of bandages fluttered in the wind.

Which was not the case, of course. His reserves weren't sufficiently recharged for that yet. He'd merely cloaked himself long enough to plant evidence, then hidden under the bed. There were enough boxes around from the recent move that he could shift them around himself and lie hidden not that far from where he had started out. Where he fell asleep as the search went on.

Hotaru had figured it out, but Minako's attempts at nursing had sufficiently alarmed her that she wasn't going to give the secret away.

By the time that General Hammond was giving his interview, Ranma had tucked a sleeping Hotaru into her bed and snuck off for real this time.

When Hotaru finally woke, she quickly put together what had happened - and decided that it was time to check up on her patient. This time without the enthusiastic but clumsy assistance of her new friend.

* * *

Zoicite smirked. The trap had gone off perfectly. Now these 'Sailor Senshi' were on this scaffolding outside the Tokyo Tower, with yoma on either side of them to pen them in. It was a killing field made to order.

"This is bad," said Sailor Jupiter, looking from one enemy to the other.

Zoicite sneered at the young girls who would never have the chance to grow up and become a real threat. "Your allies cannot appear to save the day here. Now you will die, Sailor Moon."

Light flared from searchlamps.

Zoicite looked up to see the hovering vehicle illuminating him. "Okay, that's new."

The Death Glider cannon installed in the bottom of the vehicle spoke in reply.

Seeing that the Dark General was occupied, the Senshi responded.

"Fire Soul!" "Jupiter Thunder Crash!" "Moon Tiara Action!" "Shabon Spray Revised - Cold Snap!"

Zoicite began to summon the energies needed to regenerate the portions of his body vaporized in the attack.

"Moon Crystal Heart Attack!"

* * *

Sailor Pluto wobbled as she tried to find a chair and sat down. She'd thought everything was back to normal. That her timeline was clean and pristine and pure.

Then came that brief ripple of energy indicating Sailor Saturn had been active. Weak though - as if at great distance.

Usagi was together with Ami and Rei and Makoto. Jedite had apparently fallen. Beryl was being Beryl. At first glance, everything had seemed perfectly in keeping with what she had expected.

Then she'd checked on Mamoru/Endymion. Mamoru Chiba was NOT supposed to be wearing a military uniform, training on firing from partial cover and using a sniper rifle which fired bullets on which had been engraved spirit wards. She was NOT supposed to be seeing military people with RAYGUNS keeping an eye on the Senshi.

Sailor Mercury was NOT supposed to have a 'Cold Snap' attack where she encased a yoma's limbs in ice, then snapped her fingers to shatter the ice and inflict damage on the yoma.

Sailor Moon was NOT supposed to have what was obviously a 'cobbled together' version of one of her more powerful attacks at this point. Each stage was supposed to be discrete, not featuring what was obviously training.

And they'd worked together NOT in the manner of young girls still unsure of their powers or tactical abilities. Somehow, somewhere, they had been coached.

Now she was also trying to figure out what was going on with the timeline, because her attempt to backtrack and learn that way had ended up with the Gates clicking off and a little SD woman with dark skin and white hair telling her that "Service Is Not Available From Your Calling Area."

What HAD happened?

* * *

"That's it. Ready. Connections made. Bringing up the system."

#0101011101.#

Initialized. System takeover 75%. Working on remaining systems.

Professor Tomoe wiped sweat off his forehead. "Well, this should be interesting."

#Many systems are inoperative or heavily damaged. It may be possible to bring this factory into operation by cannibilizing from the others.#

"That is what we expected," said Sergeant Halderman. "It's a real 'fixer upper'."

"Factory," asked Professor Tomoe of the box lit with blue lights, directing his voice towards the microphone, "you were built by the BOLO at our request. Can you confirm something?"

#Proceed, Professor. It is in the best interests of both our peoples for equitable exchanges of goods and information. I shall continue to work on consolidating control.#

"Refuge was a scientific outpost, and the equivelant of an upper class neighborhood, wasn't it?" asked the Professor.

#Confirmed with reservations. Research was the main thrust of the city.#

"This world, 'Zeno', was obviously factories and manufacturing?" asked Tomoe. "The world covered in ice with the destabilized orbit. That would have been the agricultural center?"

#Confirmed. A flow of products and services would have utilized the Stargate network until the attacks began. It is likely the agrarian world of 'Ziphal' was the last to be struck down, and not by the Enemy.#

"These constructor arms look salvageable," mused Sergeant Halderman as he worked a little further off.

"Where did the refined materials come from?" asked Professor Tomoe.

#Fourth world. Name Zukor. Gate address not in BOLO's files and therefore not in my own. Will attempt to locate using files from this factory's systems when control established and time permits.#

* * *

Senator Kinsey's office was a rather traditional looking place. He had a heavy oak desk, with shelves full of very weighty looking tomes, and solid little decoration that all had to do with politics, and what went into it. Even the coloring was done in a rather conservative style, giving the room some life, but without any emotion, save for cool thought.

To the man behind the desk, this decor was perfect, as it fit in with his personal ideas. A place that was as solid as his stance was just the sort of place that he needed. And as he was certain that he was one of the ones who had to help keep things on an even keel while others ran off with wild ideas, it was the sort of place that he needed to be.

Of course, it was made all the sweeter by the fact that those he had to rein in weren't quite the skilled politicians that he was. Fortunately, he knew the ins and outs of the real power in the country, and he wasn't about to let anyone simply run with any idea that might harm his world, never mind the possible benefits that it might bring.

As he highlighted a part of a funding report that was earmarked for 'recruiting', he smiled to himself. Obviously, Hammond was overreaching his authority, and didn't know when he should hold back. But that was just another nail in the coffin, since he was sure that all the other senators would be rather displeased to find a general playing with the budget in such a way.

Though, maybe once he learned, Kinsey could relax, and sit in comfort. After all this hard work, he needed a bit of time to rest, which he was certain that he'd get. It wasn't like Hammond could get anything past _him_.

* * *

The scene was one that would have had a certain group of parents panicking, but it was a rather calm one as well. All around the edges of the empty warehouse were armed soldiers, each of whom were clearly not in any rush to use their weapons. In fact, they were clearly not guarding against what was in their midst, but were acting as a protective shield against what might come from outside. Others were positioned around the building, and it was clear that anyone not authorized to be there would be in for a lot of trouble.

However, Rei, Ami, Makoto and Usagi were authorized, and the soldiers didn't blink at the sight of having a quartet of schoolgirls being among them. That wasn't to say that the girls themselves weren't showing signs of nervousness, but they were managing to look quite more controlled than their age might have made them act otherwise. Part of it was the fact that they had not only permission to be there, but had been asked to come. But there was something else that had them a bit anxious.

The individual who caused that feeling entered the building and headed over to face the Senshi directly.

"Miss Usagi Tsukino, Miss Rei Hino, Miss Ami Mizuno, and Miss Makoto Kino," the tall woman in the American uniform who'd been with the person in question greeted them. "This is Belldandy, and Specialist Keiichi Morisato."

"Hello there. It's nice to meet you all," Belldandy commented with a smile.

Usagi stepped over to her and nodded. "It's nice to meet you. But...."

"Yes?"

"You're an alien?!" the blonde blurted, and then ducked her head. "Sorry...."

"It's alright. I know that I look a lot like a human, but this is the way that my line of my people evolved."

"You all became so pretty?"

"How nice of you to say that," the Vanir replied, smiling at the compliment. "Though some of the males wouldn't like being called that."

"Oooh... right. They're probably handsome, right?"

"I would think so, but I've never really paid attention in that way to them before."

"Really?"

"Really. But I do have to say that you and your friends are very pretty girls."

"Why, thank you!"

"It's only the truth."

Seeming to come to some important decision, Usagi stuck out her hand. "Let's be friends. I think that it'll be great."

"I think that I'd like that very much," Belldandy agreed, reaching out to shake the offered hand, leaving the other Senshi and Keiichi to blink at the scene.

* * *

"Is it just me, or is the camera pick up a bit brighter?" asked one of the security detail watching the surveillance equipment.

Her partner gave her shook his head. "Trust me. Don't try to analyze these things."

"Happens a lot around here, right?"

"Right."

She sighed, and turned her attention back to the screen.

* * *

Bored.

That was one word that went together with Urd to form the word 'trouble'.

Doctor Janet Fraiser and Captain Samantha Carter were far far away. Teal'c, Daniel Jackson, and Colonel O'Neill were all on a nice little world even further away.

General Hammond wasn't too close either.

Some of the technicians and others who WERE there - were concerned.

"There! It's done. Now who to test it on?"

It was odd how those words, spoken by Urd, were causing the tide of humanity to retreat from her immediate presence. It was just this feeling in the air or something. Not that anyone was afraid of Miss Urd doing something actively malicious. No, it was more the feeling that you get when something is about to go severely wrong beyond normal expectations. Like pressing the elevator door and hearing the sound of cables snapping above you. Something BAD was going to happen.

"Oh, your name is Harriman isn't it?"

The named technician stopped and slowly turned around from the escape hatch someone was holding shut from the other side. "Uhm, yes?"

* * *

"So these crystals are actually holographic circuit boards and memory storage systems," said one of the technicians.

"Yup, something on the order of three or four tetrabytes, I reckon," said another.

Mamoru walked through the hangar, glancing at the technicians and wondering exactly how much of the universe as he had believed it to be - was just flat out wrong.

A fragile paradigm.

There were those girls again, and again that odd feeling of connection between himself and that one in particular. They were meeting some young woman.

There was a pulse and wave in the air as they shook hands, centered on them. Mamoru shook it off, but for a moment there he had felt a sense of wonder and contentment. He noticed a few others likewise showing signs of having felt it.

How curious. Ah, he'd been noticed. Well, he'd have to get this over with.

* * *

The Gates Of Time had been discovered on Charon long long ago. They had existed long before the Moon Kingdom, and it had been thought by those who knew of them that they might even predate the Sailor Wars.

They were, in fact, an example of Ancient technology. Research into time travel had eventually borne fruit and one of the results had been this chamber of swirling mists and a door which could connect eras.

There had been no "owner's manual" or anything to indicate the builders or purpose, and the few scraps of writing on the Gates themselves had been discovered hidden in the engravings on the surface.

A name had been found - Khronus, in the phonetic structure that the Earth Kingdom referred to as an Ancient tongue.

That had been one reason to keep it secret. Had the Earth Kingdom learned of it, they would have demanded access as it was clearly part of their heritage. The danger of paradox and shifting timestreams had been judged too great to allow anyone access. So the Gates were there, and there was a guardian, but the Gates Of Time were not to be used.

The Gateroom, that area of swirling mists, was protected from paradox and timeshifts. It was an area outside the flow of time as it was experienced beyond its confines - a pocket universe roughly fifty meters across.

Inside that space, the Guardian fretted.

Pacing back and forth, Sailor Pluto tried to figure out what exactly had happened. In the thousands of years since she'd taken up the post, her already long lifespan attentuated further by the time spent here at the Gates, she'd learned a few things.

The Ancients had built the Stargate network, and then built this temporal regulation device to protect this world. They had passed long before the Moon Kingdom had been founded by interstellar wanderers, long before the Earth Kingdom had come together from scattered tribes.

What she was watching now was wrecking a lot of preconcieved notions.

* * *

"I really can't give you a lot of details," apologized Belldandy. "It's rather frowned upon by the Ancients who Ascended."

"Something like the 'Prime Directive' from 'Star Trek'," guessed Keiichi. "A law against interfering with less technologically advanced civilizations?"

"Yes, though 'technology' can also be other things," agreed Belldandy.

"So we have a rough timeline now," said Uematsu. "The Ancient civilization thrived here a few million years ago, but removed all traces of their civilization when they moved on - presumably to give the new races developing at that time a clear field to develop their own civilization."

Belldandy just smiled and sipped her tea, apparently absorbed in that activity.

"Moved on?" asked Rei.

"From comments given," said Agent White, checking her notes, "the Ancients had been faced with a massive plague that wiped out a number of planets and then sought a means of 'ascending' - throwing off their physical forms to become beings of energy. A step of accelerated evolution whereby they could reach a state beyond what we consider the laws by which reality works."

"'Reality' seems to have taken on entirely new meanings of late," said Mamoru Chiba, the soft comment carrying through the warehouse.

There were snorts and muttered comments of agreement following that, at least from those who could follow the Japanese conversation.

"After the Ancients left, there came a homo sapiens ancestor race which formed the Earth Kingdom," continued Agent White. "There seems to be some interbreeding with _homo neandrathalesis_ and co-existence with _australopithecus_ at various points."

Nobody commented on her stumbling over the genus/species, the British agent apparently not having an anthropology background.

"The Moon Kingdom apparently arrived in this system somewhere between 20,000 and 10,000 years ago," continued Agent White. "Among its number were the original Seira Senshi."

"Here we go," said Rei, leaning forward.

"We can't verify what intel we've gotten so far," cautioned Agent White. "However, we do have information that a third force - possibly what the refugees forming the Moon Kingdom fled - infiltrated the Earth Kingdom and manipulated the two kingdoms into a war."

"This would be who we're fighting now?" asked Ami.

"Exactly. The leader of this group is a former princess of that kingdom named Beryl, who apparently has preserved her life in something similar to cryostasis." Agent White waited for the inevitable question.

Usagi obliged. "'Cryostasis'?"

"Suspended animation, a sleep that lasts millenia," answered Ami.

Belldandy refilled her teacup.

"Beryl's superior is apparently named Metal'la. Some sort of alien life form, apparently something that escaped the Sailor Wars and followed the Moon Kingdom refugees here," said Agent White, again consulting her notes.

"You've beaten a large number of their soldiers, and two of their higher ranking officials," said Uematsu from where he was straddling a chair. "It is likely that they will intensify attempts to remove you from their path."

A dog cleared his throat. "If I might speak?"

"WAHHHHHHHHHH!" said Usagi, reacting in shock. "THAT DOGGIE TALKED!"

"How cute!" said Makoto.

Ami and Rei glanced at each other, then at Usagi. Unsure of how to ask her why a talking dog was any stranger than a talking cat.

"Excuse me," said the German Shepherd dog, "the nature of this enemy does seem to follow a certain hierarchy. If I might make a suggestion?"

* * *

It takes time to change things. It was an age where people expected life to follow TV scripts and the guilty to be found and caught and justly incarcerated - within the space of a half-hour, or at most an hour. Yet life was never so tidy, and to affect changes in the society required time to pass.

Except that it wasn't quite happening that way. Many things had been said about the power of prayer, and when a Vanir had an open access to a psionic computer network that spanned galaxies - prayer could literally move the world.

Which brought a simple scene to many households.

"-and I have two little granddaughters myself," said the bald man in the uniform, sitting before the camera, "I certainly don't want to see them denied the opportunities possible for them."

"So you want them to become engineers or scientists?" asked the interviewer.

"Perhaps I didn't put that well," said the man, a caption indicating this was a "General Hammond" of a space telemetry program located outside of Colorado Springs. "I want them to be able to become whatever they want to be. If it's an astronaut, an engineer, a scientist, a firefighter, or even a reporter - I want them to be able to achieve whatever their own drive and ability can do without any barriers in the way. The military is both a duty and an opportunity, we see a number of fine young personnel who only serve one or two terms before returning to civilian life, but the lessons they learn and accomplishments they can achieve can last their lifetimes."

It was subtle, but a number of little girls listened and considered possibilities they might not have considered previously.

Then there were some not so little girls who listened and heard and thought about possibilities they'd never really considered before.

* * *

"Well, Ranma, you've obviously been slacking," said Genma, shaking his head as he paced the practice yard.

"I dunno about that," said Ranma, yawning in the chill morning light. Morning light was a little odd here - the sky lightened with predawn, and then there were the hours where the gaps in the mountains to the East sent shafts of light into the mountains to the West but there was no direct sunlight.

"You're going up against foes who are merciless, implacable, who have trained all their lives to become soldiers of an evil empire," said Genma. "You can't allow your skills to slip."

"I got those short swords cause some of these things ain't so easy to hurt," pointed out Ranma.

"Tools are fine, relying on them is not," said Genma, sounding like he was quoting. "Improve your weapons and your strength with those weapons is increased, improve your own strength and your strength with all weapons is increased."

"That's fine and good, but how?" asked Ranma.

"You have already learned the Way Of The Observant Thief and the Way Of The Quiet Thief," said Genma. "There is yet the 'Way Of The Noisy Thief' to master."

* * *

Hotaru watched from her position near the practice yard's gate as Ranma learned from his father.

She watched as he went through a set of stretches, and continued to watch as Ranma began studying some scroll.

Hotaru wanted to participate, to go over there and learn so that SHE could protect Ranma too. This was father and son though, and their style wasn't quite her own. Her talents lay on different paths, or so it appeared.

Hotaru's mouth firmed and she waited until Ranma's father was away from Ranma before she moved to approach him.

At the very least she could learn how to use that weapon she had as Sailor Saturn, and then she could train herself. Ranma would protect her, and she would protect Ranma!

* * *

_AUTHOR'S NOTES:_

Okay, there's still quite a bit to go. Thank you for all the reviews so far! ^_^


	14. Chapter 14: Nodoka

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Chapter 14: Nodoka

* * *

It wasn't hard to figure out where 'Colorado Springs', as Nodoka was not an idiot, by any means. She knew that looking on a map would help, and the simplest thing to do would be to get an atlas. When she got a political map of the United States, she turned her attention to the state of 'Colorado'. Upon finding that, it just took her some time to discover where the town was that the letter was mailed from was.

That was why she was currently sitting in a hotel room in that same town. The place wasn't the best that money could buy, but it was nice enough. She had a bed that was warm, a room that was clean, and a bathroom that was hers. There was little else that she needed, and she didn't plan on staying there all the time, or searching for tourist spots. Somewhere nearby was where her son and husband had gone, and she didn't want to miss her chance to find them.

However, her mind wasn't exactly on searching outside that room at the moment.

What interested her was being shown on the television. How her English skills worked weren't important either, as she was staring at the line of text that was under the image of the man in the American military uniform. And _that_ was something that had a very tight hold on her attention.

As she considered this 'Hammond', she found herself smiling, as she was certain that a general who commanded a base in the town that she was in would know of her son. After all, there were few civilians who would be allowed to stay there like that. Besides, it was obvious that this man was trying to get more girls into his command, which would be a likely reason why there were multiple girls available for interest in her son.

She was certain that she was going to have to ask about that.

* * *

Congresswoman Bobbi Latham tossed the file down to her desk and snorted. "Does the Senator actually expect us to go crazy over this?"

"I'm not certain, ma'am," her assistant admitted. "This is something that a lot of people would normally be angry about."

"Except in this instance, this is the military stepping out in a good way."

"Exactly."

"Then why would Kinsey send this to me?" the congresswoman muttered as she leaned back in her chair.

"You have proven to be a very vocal critic of the military from time to time...."

"Only when it's necessary. This? We should be congratulating this Hammond."

The assistant shrugged. "People _are_ starting to think that his publicity has been responsible for the rising recruitment rates of women in all branches of the military. It's only a small percentage so far, but it is there."

"And that's exactly what is needed. Women have to be allowed to contribute as well."

"Perhaps he disagrees with you."

"I think that it's more likely that Bob Kinsey isn't seeing anything past his nose... again," Latham sighed. "And if he thinks that I'm going to join him on his bandwagon, he'd better think again."

* * *

Even though he understood politics, Major Paul Davis knew that he'd never really get into it. He had a tendency to stick with what he felt that he should do, and he wasn't one to ride the waves of popularity with others. That's what was so amusing about his current situation, as he'd been friendly with the SGC before it was considered politically savvy to do so. Now, he was being looked at as a very intelligent and skilled man who knew where to put his stake in before anyone else did.

Not that it really concerned him, as he didn't care about such things when he had decided that he would help the SGC whenever he could. They were people who's mission and methods were the same as his, and he had gotten to actually care about them. They were friends, and no matter what sort of position that he might in politically, he wanted to be there to assist them whenever he could.

So, he had no problem with coming in and check up things while General Hammond was out with the press.

"Major!" called out a voice, and it took him a moment to realize that it was him.

Turning, he saw a technician looking back at him. "Siler, isn't it?"

"Yes, sir."

"What can I do for you?"

"I've been asked to give you a message. Apparently, someone's been calling to speak with General Hammond."

"Then why not leave a note on his desk, or hand it over to the officer in charge?"

Siler's look was a bit chagrined. "We can't.... exactly. It's from someone named Nodoka Saotome."

"You're kidding."

"No. It seems that she wants to either come onto the base to visit her son and husband, or to have them come visit her."

"What do the people we had tracking her say?" Davis asked.

"Spur of the moment decision, sir. She got a letter, and decided that it was time for a reunion."

"Well, a trip to Tokyo could be a problem...."

"She's not in Tokyo, sir."

"Then where is she?"

"Here, sir. She's in a hotel in Colorado Springs."

With an unblinking gaze, the major just stared at the other man in shock.

* * *

The Dark Kingdom was not a happy place, even in the best of circumstance.

In many ways it was like a hive, with energy-harvesters being the common drones that went out and got the "honey" for the others to survive. Others filled specialized roles within the hive, such as the 'Doom & Gloom Sisters' who were warriors. Then there were others who didn't quite fit the same hive mentality.

Nickel Cadmium was one such. Essentially a janitor and low level flunky who wasn't much more powerful than a normal human, and was just a minor worker-drone.

Then there was an example like Cubic Zirconium.

"Oh sure, call me 'Zirc'," said the female yoma, sitting lazily at her chair. "I'm a bit of an oddball, never really fit in. It's always up to us lower level drones to do the upkeep and take out the trash. We're the ones who have to go doing the initial scouting and stuff. It's a rough life."

"I had no idea," said Sailor Moon.

"Oh yeah, the big generals and such are always giving us all sorts of crap. 'Go loom menacingly in the background' or 'laugh evilly in the shadows' or 'empty the trash' or 'bury the victims' or 'scout out the best location for an energy harvesting operation' or 'unclog the toilets' or something," said Cubic Zirconium.

"So what do you use 'life energy' for?" asked Uematsu.

"Me? Don't use it myself," said Cubic Zirconium. "You've got humans who're vegetarians, right? Same principle. I only eat 'lust'."

"You eat 'lust'?" asked Sailor Mars, looking over the lush figure of the yoma.

"Yup," said Cubic Zirconium. "I got a taste of lust energy over in Akihabara and oh man what a high. Course it doesn't have as many calories as life-energy so you've got to eat more often."

"I'd imagine that isn't very difficult," said Sailor Mars drily.

"Nah, just the boy's locker room at a high school can keep me going all day," admitted Zirconium. "Oooh. Tasty!"

"A boy's locker room?" asked Sailor Mercury.

"Oh yeah," said Zirc, eyes seeming to burn with some inner light. "Hot sweaty bodies, lusty hormonally driven toned forms - especially if they share a period with the girls' class." Zirc smacked her lips.

"T.M.I.!" declared Sailor Mars. "THIS is your source of information?!"

"One of them," admitted Uematsu. "Emperor Zirc here-"

"EMPEROR?" asked Sailor Mars.

"They gave me an official title as Emperor of the Boy's Locker Room at Kolkhoz High School," said Zirc proudly.

Uematsu shrugged at Sailor Mars' look. "It was a trade for information about the leaders of the yoma forces."

"Shouldn't it be 'Empress'?" asked Sailor Mercury.

"Doesn't have the same ring," explained Zirc.

"You let her drain the lust off of teenage boys, that's..." Sailor Mars realized what she was saying halfway through her rant and went a lot quieter.

"Their grades are up an average of twenty percent on classes after gym as a result," said Uematsu coolly. "Possibly because they can actually concentrate on studying."

"..." Sailor Mars just looked off into the distance. On the one hand, this was allowing a yoma to feed on an unsuspecting civilian population. On the other hand, could she really object to boys being less perverted?

Sailor Jupiter looked like she had an objection, but really didn't want to speak that objection.

"In any case," said Uematsu, "the reason for this meeting. Zirc, would you tell them what you told us?"

Zirc nodded, flipping her hair back and looking a little less mischievious. "Two of the Dark Generals have fallen. Each of the remainder is powerful but the one you really have to look out for is Nephrite."

"He's the most powerful?" guessed Sailor Jupiter.

"No, he's the only one who acts like he's got a brain," was Zirc's opinion. "He places a lot of stock in that astrology junk, but he's a lot better at that than your newspaper astrologers."

* * *

Nephrite read the stars and frowned. He rechecked.

Then the Dark General left the room, cloak billowing dramatically out behind him - not that he noticed.

To go ahead and simply smite down these twittering teenage girls was apparently suicide. Worse, it would not allow him to accomplish his mission.

So he'd let the others do their usual tactics. He would have to infiltrate human society, as distasteful as that was, and then seek out these girls to strike from hiding. Those soldiers were more respect-worthy, but they were still human and these girls apparently commanded them. That made these girls more clever and subtle than he would have thought.

Nephrite thought he had it. They tried to act like idiotic little girls, but clearly they were the dark generals and their soldiers the minions.

Cut off the head and the body dies. Any soldier knew that.

* * *

If there was something that Hotaru hadn't been certain of, it was about the fact that she was about to meet Ranma's mother. That was something that she hadn't really thought about, as Genma had never really brought her up. She had never really questioned that fact, as she had never heard anything about the woman in question.

Getting told that she was going back to Earth was a big surprise to her. When she had heard what the reason for the trip was, she was shocked, as this had come out of the blue. And then she had felt guilty, as she had not really thought about the fact that Ranma had to have a mother for a long while.

But as the car carrying them from the SGC to her hotel pulled into the Motel Six parking lot, she found herself feeling rather anxious. It wasn't only for herself, as this was the woman who had given birth to the boy that she cared so much for, but for someone else who this was a very important meeting. He was the one that she was watching as the car stopped.

As soon as he could, Ranma popped open the door and stepped out of the car.

"Slow down, boy!" Genma barked as he got out himself.

The pigtailed boy scowled at his father. "Why should I? Ya gotta know how important this is!"

"That's exactly it!"

"Oh, really? Then why should we wait 'round here for?!"

Crossing his arms over his chest, the Saotome Patriarch gave his son a flat look. "Do you know which room she is in?"

"Uhh... no."

"Exactly. And remember, you want to show her that you're a man now. Have some dignity, boy."

"I just wanna go see my Mom...." Ranma muttered.

Feeling a deep sympathy for his situation, Hotaru reached out and gave one of his hands a small squeeze. When he looked at her in surprise, she gave him a reassuring smile, and he seemed to relax from it. That was what she hoped for, and she held onto his hand to support him.

His fingers tightened around hers, and they walked hand in hand as they followed the military officer assigned to lead them to Nodoka Saotome.

* * *

Area 51 had seen some really strange machinery in its time. Advanced craft created by the American military had flown from there for decades, and lately it had seen alien fighter units, space technology, and new sorts of locomotion. Those there were used to researching devices of unusual and powerful origins.

They just weren't so used to seeing what was going on with the latest adaptation of advanced technologies. Using the new battery technology and artificial myomer structures, the MADDOX power armor was being field tested at Area 51. It was a very clear and powerful leap forward in military hardware that would likely give the Goa'uld a run for their money.

Of course, the fact that it was only a test, and not an actual combat situation made what the current test pilot was doing less embarrassing.

"Form Blazing Sword!" called out Harry Maybourne as he had the unit stand dramatically.

"Sir?" commented one of the development team, sounding as apologetic as he could. "That unit has a chain gun, no sword. There is a knife though."

"What? No sword?! Have to add one for the Mk II then. Knives are for villains and wimpy little mecha pilots who hide behind their mommies. America deserves giant robots with whopping big swords!"

"Understood, sir," the technician replied, mentally sighing to himself about the oddities of military officers.

* * *

His plan was as simple as could be, as he understood the issues at stake. Unlike his 'comrades', Nephrite wasn't about to go into complicated and long term operations. Those could easily have something go wrong, and give these 'mere girls' the time that they would need to catch on to what he was doing.

Instead, there was an easy way to handle his desire to get to the 'Sailor Senshi'. All he had to do was go undercover as a civilian, and he'd be able to investigate anything he could find on them. Once he found out who they really were, he could take them out easily enough, and clear the way for the Dark Kingdom to succeed finally.

Though, if he had to appear to be one of them, he was going to at least give himself a position that didn't have people expecting him to be pushing papers all day. He'd go insane if he had to hold down some cover office worker job, and it wouldn't allow him the freedom to be coming and going as he needed to. Plus, people would have expectations as to what a regular person would do.

As he put his hands into his jacket pockets and walked along the sidewalk, he thought that nothing could go wrong in his identity of being a 'mysterious millionaire'... until he came around a corner at the same time that a girl in a school uniform was.

Catching her before she fell was something that he did instinctively, and he had her solidly on her feet before he wondered why he'd automatically done that. "Are you okay?"

"Uhh... I think so.... Oh my...." she replied, her voice going weak as she looked up at him.

"Are you sure? You seem to be a bit... overwhelmed."

"I... I.... It's just.... Sorry, I just didn't expect to run into you... er, someone like that."

"It's understandable. You didn't see me, and I didn't see you."

"I'm certain that I would have seen you...." she murmured, and then flushed as she realized what she'd said.

Nephrite couldn't help himself as a smile curved his lips. "I don't know how to take that. But you seem to be a nice enough young lady."

"You're nice too.... Umm.... Who are you?"

"My name is Masato Sanjouin. And you are?"

"Na... Naru. Naru Osaka."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Naru."

"Same here," Naru answered.

* * *

Sailor Pluto was flummoxed. SOMETHING had made a change in the patterns of time as she knew them. Something had apparently started out subtle as a snowflake tumbling down a steep hill, but had accumulated change and was now a mighty avalanche.

Echoes and repercussions continued. Most of which only deserved a brief glance.

The most altered area was not one that she often visited or paid much attention to. In the scheme of things as she knew it - the United States was a trivial footnote. Representative Democracy would fail as a political system, eventually being replaced with a monarchy again. Yet _something_ was going on over there.

She didn't pay much attention again. After all, she knew that that country wasn't important. Therefore she didn't notice certain developments. Various young women wondered what could be so fascinating about 'deep space telemetry' but considered doing a term of military service simply because it might open a few doors otherwise not available. That they wouldn't have even considered the possibility prior to General Hammond's interview was not lost on some who observed such trends.

She also didn't notice that in the lobby of a Motel Six in Colorado Springs that a group of Japanese nationals were meeting in.

She certainly didn't notice a LOT of very nervous technicians watching (via monitor screens at what they considered a prudent distance) a woman named Urd tinkering with a certain sarcophogus.

If she had noticed Area 51 even in passing, she would have seen a smirking Colonel Maybourne as he watched someone working with the prototype MADDOX unit, and would certainly have raised an eyebrow at some of the designs on his computer monitor. She MIGHT have made remarks about compensation and phallic symbolism, to which the Colonel himself might have replied about efficiency, aerodynamics, and laws of physics.

Because she herself was Japanese, and because she herself was of a future where America was buried under crystal and an uninhabitable wasteland, she paid little attention to that country.

What she was seeing in Japan was of concern enough.

* * *

"There's another villain?" asked Sailor Moon.

"Several actually," said Tessa. "These call themselves the Goa'uld, and this is what they look like." She placed the tube with the dead critter on the table.

"Ick," summed up Sailor Moon.

"It's some form of parasitic organism?" asked Mercury, scanner going.

"Yes, it burrows into a human body then extends nerves from its own body to infiltrate the spinal column of the victim," said Tessa.

"The Goa'uld enslave humans and have a vast empire with technology they've scavenged from various worlds," said one of the American technicians. "The vehicle you see over there was built by duplicating some of their systems with terrestrial parts."

Mars glanced at the vehicle but didn't see it as that impressive. Even if it did have a big gun.

"One of several?" asked Sailor Jupiter.

"Yes, in addition to the Goa'uld and your current opponents, there are the originators of the Senshi," said Tessa.

"Excuse me," said Belldandy, speaking up for the first time in a long while. "I was just going to invite the young lady watching us from the Time Gates to try this tea."

"We're being observed?" asked Tessa, ready to signal an evacuation of the building.

"Why yes, we are," said Belldandy seeming to look directly at a point in space that seemed empty. "Oh dear. She's just severed the connection."

"We'll have to relocate everything, this location has been compromised," said Tessa to the various technicians.

* * *

What she had just seen was VERY concerning. There was no possible way someone could detect her observation or react to it. Yet that one woman had not only detected her, but had apparently SEEN her.

To say that Sailor Pluto was concerned was an understatement. She was shaken and wanting to sit down.

Especially since she'd ALMOST stepped through the Gates and accepted the offer of tea.

Maybe she'd been working too hard.

* * *

Samantha Carter slumped in her chair. Just getting in front of a bunch of people and giving a lecture shouldn't be so exhausting.

Janet Fraiser, in the next seat, smiled in an understanding manner. This certainly had been trying in ways she hadn't expected. Fortunately this batch of meetings was over and they could get on with their REAL jobs.

Her phone ringing was unexpected, and she fumbled briefly with it before it could wake Captain Carter up.

"Doctor Fraiser here."

Janet listened briefly. "Yes, Siler, I know. I have met Miss Urd."

Janet's frown intensified as she listened some more. "She did what? I thought that had been sent to Area 51."

She nodded a couple of times as she listened. "Paperwork snafu? We seem to be getting a few of those. Still, all it did was turn Jack into a girl - it wasn't like it caused him any harm. Hmmm? No, I probably wouldn't say that to his face."

The doctor eyed the way Samantha shivered and wondered how asleep the Captain was. "So what is she doing to the sarcophogus that is so alarming? It's been disabled after all."

"She did what? She said what? I think she got a very wrong idea from General Hammond's speech about getting more women in the military. The General is discussing that directly with her? I knew he was brave. Yes, yes. You might consider that once it is safe, putting a hand grenade inside that sarcophogus just to be safe. Okay Siler."

Janet let out a deep breath as she closed the connection. Maybe she ought to take some time off.

* * *

Jedite sat back and watched the television, smirking at the antics of the people on screen. Oh sure - it was plebian entertainment, obviously not written or performed for discerning tastes or intellectual stimulation. Didn't mean that it didn't have a certain appeal though.

Right now the former Dark General had some downtime. In the one depot they'd found a few minor things that really didn't have that much value. A few recordings of events and some intelligence from the war between the Earth Kingdom and Moon Kingdom, a shield, a couple of minor weapons. Some weird object from a time even before the Moon and Earth Kingdom that had been a sort of curio appreciated for its artistic merits.

Taking a bite of some strange but tasty thing with the awkward name of 'apperru streudelo', Jedite watched as Endora threatened to turn 'Durwood' into a toad.

Of course, he knew magic didn't work anywhere near what was being depicted in this series, but it DID provide a quick happy fantasy about a certain former princess-turned-Dark Queen croaking on a lily pad.

* * *

Beryl shivered as a cold breeze played through the underground complex. "Report."

"Nephrite is infiltrating human society in order to gather intelligence and strike," said the Dark General. "As if we need such measures."

Beryl looked into her crystal ball, watching as Gilligan dropped a coconut on the Skipper's foot. She snickered.

Emboldened, the Dark General promised much nastiness in the future and strode off to cause much hurty to the humans.

One of the minor yoma turned to another minor yoma and vowed NOT to get hit in the head by that human energy weapon as that sort of side effect was just way too frightening.

* * *

"I said I wanted more women in the military, true," admitted General Hammond. "I didn't mean turning male soldiers into female soldiers."

"I didn't think you did," said Urd, inserting a gadget into a section of the sarcophogus that looked a little like a blender crossed with a slot machine.

"Oh, good," said General Hammond, visibly relieved.

"This isn't something that will reduce the number of hunky men around here," said Urd with a wink. "At least that wasn't what it was designed to do. Skuld's better with the gadgets. At least when they don't blow up."

"That's quite all right," said the General. "So what are you doing with that?"

"This sarcophogus unit has been largely made inoperative, and what it does do - isn't that useful." Urd tapped the gadget. "Just a moment while I test fire it."

General Hammond blinked once and backed away as Urd added some ingredients into the blender. "What exactly does this do?"

* * *

"You want more women like Doctor Fraiser and Captain Carter, right?" asked Urd, looking as innocent as she could.

"Well, I value their contributions," admitted General Hammond, trying not to back up any further.

"But do you actually have a desire to have more officers that would be like them?"

"If I could, that would be helpful...."

"Exactly!"

"Pardon me?" he asked, clearly confused by the way that the conversation was going.

"It's really simple, this device will allow you to have exactly that. More officers who are like Captain Carter, or Doctor Fraiser!"

"How could you do that?"

"Simple. With this!" the Vanir replied, holding up a hairbrush. "This will provide me with my last ingredient!"

"It will?"

"Of course it will."

"While I do have to admit that the science that your people have is amazing, we've never been able to use a hairbrush for more than its common use."

"It's not the _brush_, but what's _in_ it!"

Hammond wasn't certain where she'd gotten the lab coat and glasses that she was suddenly wearing, but something told him that it would be better to pay attention to how she was using tweezers to pull something out of the brush. When he saw that it was a blonde hair, he frowned slightly. "What will you use that for?"

"Something that the other side of my people have been doing for a _long_ time."

"And that would be?"

"This," she said, and dropped the hair into the blender. "And now, all that is left is to turn it on, and we will have 'magic'."

"Just how safe would this be...."

"Completely. Trust me!" Urd chirped, and turned her machine on.

Lights began to show up on her gizmo, and a bright glow came from the sarcophagus, one that became so dazzling that one couldn't look straight at it without wincing. Even then, it was impossible to actually see anything beyond the light, and one could barely hear the hum that filled the room.

But it died away as quickly as it came up, and soon enough, General Hammond was able to turn to see what the result of the alien woman's work had been.

* * *

The technicians watching on the video feed saw the situation, and a number of them braced for an explosion. But once it was clear that they were not about to become separated by their molecules, they turned relaxed a bit. Then they looked back, and saw what exactly _had_ resulted from the experiment.

One of the technicians stared for a moment before getting excited. "Focus it!"

"What?" asked another. "Why?"

"I've got to see... that we have a full recording of what has come from this major situation."

"Are you sure that's why?"

"Sure. Though any other reasons are nice enough."

"It isn't completely professional, but a guy gets this sort of experience only once in a while."

"Just what I was thinking."

* * *

At first, Hammond had thought that he was going to be seeing some sort of disaster. Usually when this sort of thing happened, something rather problematic would come up. However, it turned out that, while this was definitely going to be trouble, it was not of the same sort of danger that he normally handled. Though, he did know that it was not something that he would have any ease in dealing with.

After all, there was a naked Captain Samantha Carter laying there in the sarcophagus, with her body visible enough to confirm that 'blonde' was her natural hair color. For a moment, he couldn't stop looking, but that was due to shock, rather than anything else. When he was able to work past that, he turned his gaze away from the nude woman, and made certain that he kept his eyes on the face of the clothed female with him. "What is the meaning of this?!"

"What? You said that you could benefit from more soldiers like Captain Carter. Well, here is another one."

"When I said that, I meant that I wanted to have other female soldiers with the same sort of talent, drive, and sense of honor that Captain Carter does! This.... This...."

"Clone."

"Is not what I meant!"

"Why? They're the same, right?"

"And that's the problem. We don't manufacture soldiers like we do knives. They are trained to both create a group that can run complicated missions together, and bring their own talents into the work. This is bringing a living being in to existence simply to be a soldier, without giving her the chance to choose. Besides the fact that we already have one to begin with."

"What's the trouble in that?"

"Other than trying to explain where another of her had just suddenly popped up?" he asked.

"Oh, right.... That _would_ be a problem...."

Giving her a flat look, the General sighed, but didn't get a chance to say anything else, as the clone was reaching for the edge of the sarcophagus to pull herself out, and she was about to prove that she was fast moving, as she had to get out of the way quickly, since it was soon clear that Urd's machine was not exactly working perfectly.

Urd had good intentions. Really she did. It was the application phase, not unlike a certain Miss Aino, that often sent people scurrying for cover.

It was as Minako Aino wandered into the room that both General Hammond and Urd realized something was a bit wrong.

Samantha Carter II got up from the sarcophogus and covered herself. "Clothes?"

An orderly (of the female variety) rushed in with a set of fatigues.

"Why does she have a tail and cat ears?" asked General Hammond, curious.

"Must still have a few variables or maybe some contamination," said Urd, looking a little surprised herself.

_chikum click chikum_ went the device, rotating some glass dumbell 180 degrees.

"Uh oh," said Urd.

_K-CHING!_ went the sarcophogus.

"Where's the shut off?" asked General Hammond as a Janet Fraiser, also with cat ears and a tail, got up out of the sarcophogus.

"So there's where that other hair went," said Urd, thinking she must have misplaced it.

_Whirrrrrrr_ went the slot machine portion. _chunk chunk chunk_

"IS there a shut off?" asked General Hammond, looking over the device.

_K-CHING!_ went the sarcophogus.

"WINGS?" asked General Hammond as a winged Janet Fraiser started getting out of the sarcophogus and more female personnel started rushing in with outfits (to the great disappointment of the males watching this on video, though it was mainly BECAUSE of those males watching that the female staff was doing this.)

_chikum click chikum_ went the device, rotating some glass dumbell 180 degrees.

"What about this lever?" asked General Hammond, pointing but clearly uncertain about pulling said lever.

_K-CHING!_ went the sarcophogus.

"Hardware isn't usually my specialty, I deal with biochemistry and programming mostly," apologetically said Urd.

The winged Carter and Fraiser looked uncertainly at the semi-feline Carter and Fraiser.

_Whirrrrrrr_ went the slot machine portion. _chunk chunk chunk_

"Can you pull the plug?" asked General Hammond, looking for just such a thing.

_K-CHING!_ went the sarcophogus.

"It'll run out of energy soon," said Urd uncertainly.

_chikum click chikum_ went the device.

"You're not certain?" guessed General Hammond.

_K-CHING!_ went the sarcophogus.

"What does this do?" asked Minako, reaching for what looked like an off switch.

* * *

"Hey guys, what's going on?" asked Captain Carter.

The assembled technicians and Marines jumped as if they'd been goosed, then seemed to interpose themselves between the display and her.

"Nothing? Yeah, nothing at all," said Siler.

Samantha Carter and Janet Fraiser exchanged a look, then shouldered their way through the crowd.

There was a brief moment of complete silence, both from the various males (who didn't seem to want to look at anything in particular) and from the two remaining females.

"Why am I in that room? Why are there so many of me?" asked Janet Fraiser.

"Why are so many of me NAKED?" asked Samantha Carter.

"Well, I suppose it's because those with the wings and those with the tails and such have trouble with normal clothing and... I think I'll just shut up now," said Harriman.

* * *

Ranma shuddered. "I just got an awful chill."

"Perhaps you should dress more warmly," suggested Nodoka.

"Yeah, maybe," said Ranma, rubbing the back of his head. Now that he was actually facing his mom, he had no idea how he was supposed to act or what to talk about.

Nodoka herself had been surprised. Genma had aged well and was clearly in better shape than she had expected. Her son likewise showed every sign of being quite healthy and fit. As for his fiancee - she was so CUTE!

* * *

Being a Dark General meant that Nephrite was someone to be feared. It was his job to go forth and destroy any opposition to the plans of the Dark Kingdom. He had powerful abilities, and plenty of minions to make sure that was something that he succeeded in. With his cool intellect, he could eliminate his enemies without a single concern.

With all that, he just couldn't seem to say 'no' to a single teenaged girl. "Are you sure...."

"Of course I'm sure," Naru chirped as she gave him a bright smile. "That cafe has some of the best cakes around."

"It does?"

"Sure does. I mean, if you're interested in places people go...."

"I am."

"Well then, that's someplace to check out, right?"

"I'd think so."

"Don't you worry."

"Why would I worry?" he asked her with a raised brow.

"You did say that you wanted to make sure that you knew where you should go. This way, I can help you do exactly that."

"With someone like you, I'm sure that I won't have a single problem."

For a moment, she just blinked at him, but then a bright red blush spread across her features, as she giggled a bit.

"But do you have something wrong?"

"Oh, no! It's nothing, really!"

Nephrite shrugged to himself, and reminded himself that it didn't matter what she was thinking. After all, he could just use her as a tool to blend in better with the locals. And having her want to do things for him would mean that he wouldn't have to use his powers to force her into it, which could be detected.

However, he also couldn't figure out why he couldn't actually think of things for activities for her to unwittingly do, and seemed intent on just keeping her around.

* * *

The situation was one that wasn't exactly a good one, what with various clones of a certain pair of women popping up. Each of them were in the nude, and having added little pieces that definitely differentiated them from the originals. Of course, that didn't matter much, as there were already enough of a problem as it was.

That was apparently about to become even more trouble, as Minako Aino had just touched the machine.

Upon hearing various beeps and whines coming from the device, the blonde teenager's eyes wide very wide and she stared at the item in question. "What's going on?"

"I'm not sure," Urd admitted. "What did you do?"

"I don't know. I just pressed a button...."

"Which one did you press?"

"Ummm...."

"Don't you know?"

"Actually.... Maybe it's this one. Or was it that one? The one over here? Down here? What about this switch?" Minako asked as she started jabbing at the controls as she mentioned them.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to find the right button...."

General Hammond just knew that this wasn't a good sign. There was a girl who had already proven that she could get equipment to do things that hadn't been in the original specifications, and she was working with an alien woman who had managed to create a device that even she couldn't handle. That meant that the situation was one that he needed to get under control as soon as possible, since it could get into the level of 'unmitigated disaster' by any meaning of the term soon enough.

All he could do was try to figure out a way to handle it, and he could see that just letting the blonde tap buttons was simply going to... make the machine short, give out a big puff of black smoke, and go dead?

"What just happened?" he asked.

Urd looked over at her device. "It's stopped working. Basically, it's been turned off."

Coughing slightly, Minako's face slowly became visible through the soot hanging around it, and she gave a weak grin. "Looks like I did it...."

Both Hammond and Urd just stared at the girl, while it became clear that before the device had been 'turned off', there were a great many 'Janet Fraisers' and 'Samantha Carters' around at the moment.

* * *

"So how many of them are there?" asked Siler.

"Let's see," said Harriman. "There's the ones with the cat ears and tails, that's one of each so that's two. There's an angel version of each of them. There's the batwinged versions. There's the ones in those sailor suits..."

"I thought Captain Carter was going to faint there when she saw those two," remembered Siler.

"Then there's the pair of robots, weird ears," said Harriman, making a pointing gesture. "Then there's the elves."

"I thought they were Vulcans," said Siler.

"Whatever," said Harriman, thinking the point wasn't really worth much.

"Don't forget the civilian versions," brought up Siler.

"They're the ones who demonstrated what happened if they came into contact with the real ones," said Harriman. "Poof. Not here any more."

"Why pink smoke?" asked Master Sergeant "Sly" Siler.

"If that was the only question you had, you weren't paying attention," said Walter Harriman.

"Hmmmm," hmmmed Siler. "What about this meeting?"

"Well, you can't blame the guy," said Walter. "Imagine the chance to meet one of your gods face-to-face. Even if he knows she's a technologically advanced alien race - you'd have a lot of questions wouldn't you?"

"Somehow I just never pictured Konan as..." Siler's voice trailed off as he considered a polite way of putting that when the individual in question was essentially a barbarian warrior. Politeness was therefore of some value.

"Philosophical enough to handle this?" asked Harriman. "It'll be... interesting."

"That old Chinese saying? 'Interesting times'?" asked Siler. "Yes, it has been interesting around here lately."

* * *

The bushes rustled before someone leapt out. Teal'c was already in a defensive stance and only relaxed slightly when he saw who it was.

"Daniel Jackson," acknowledged Teal'c.

"Teal'c? Thank goodness," said Daniel, between gasps for air. "Doctor..."

"Judging from your ripped clothing and unkempt appearance, it appears that the other female scientist was likewise affected," said Teal'c.

"You could say that," said Daniel. "Waitaminute. You mean that BOTH of them?"

"I believe that it is these red flowers, which opened as night fell, which are responsible," said Teal'c. "It appeared to be a minor effect up until she began investigating the flowers directly."

"Yours too? That's exactly what happened at my end," admitted Daniel.

"I believe it likely that when sunrise occurs, the flowers will stop releasing pollen," said Teal'c.

"Why the heck was Urd so sure this was a good place to vacation?" asked Daniel.

"I believe the report said she thought it was a good place for 'couples' to come," pointed out Teal'c.

"That's... that's... That kinda fits her, doesn't it?" mumbled Daniel, as the facts clicked together.

"So it does," agreed Teal'c.

"Should we warn Jack?" asked Daniel.

"I believe O'Neill is quite capable of handling this situation," opined Teal'c.

* * *

Jack scratched his head, trying to understand the situation.

First he had that one "lady scientist" jumping on him and trying to extract his tonsils with her tongue. Then the other lady scientist had come and attacked the first one.

The two were now rolling around on the ground, biting and wrestling and scratching and...

Jack continued to watch, and try to make sense of it.

He didn't think he was going to have much success with the latter.

* * *

"Ah, that was good," said Usagi, sitting back and eyeing the ceiling.

Rei merely eyed the stack of ice cream dishes in front of Usagi. "You're going to get fat at that rate."

"Urk," said Usagi, suddenly picturing herself in her seifuku and fifty kilos overweight.

Belldandy blinked and put her cup down. "My sister likes ice cream too."

"You have a sister?" asked Rei, turning her attention to this.

"Two. An older sister - Urd. A younger sister - Skuld." Belldandy looked off towards the ceiling. "I wonder how Skuld is doing."

* * *

"WAGGGHHH!" _THWAM!_

Skuld lowered her mallet as the three-dimensional manifestation of a computer glitch faded out. "Why do I have to do this all alone! Urddddddddd!"

* * *

"So there's a Sailor Venus and a Sailor Saturn?" asked Mamoru. "How many Sailors are there?"

"Those are the only ones, save yourselves, that we know of for certain," confessed Uematsu. "We are also unsure of how many Generals there were, only that there are apparently five that were coerced to join this 'Beryl' in her goal of exterminating the Moon Kingdom. Currently we think there are one for every planet, in keeping with that common motif."

"So there's still a Sailor Earth, Sailor Neptune, Sailor Uranus, Sailor Pluto," said Mamoru, following that.

"There's debate about Pluto actually being a planet in the scientific circles, so we're not sure about that one," admitted Uematsu. "If there is a Pluto, then it may be that other Kuiper Belt Objects may have Sailors if they fall within the mass range and other requirements."

"I wonder," said Mamoru. "So what about these spirit-bullets?"

"Less flashy than roses, but I would expect these to have better penetration," said Uematsu. "Ah, they're done replacing the targets. You may resume practice."

* * *

Kunzite was _not_ pleased with the way that things were going at all. The situation was rather problematic at best, and he was reasonably certain that they were not going to get better. Just the sudden defeat and elimination of Zoicite had him grinding his teeth, and to add in how Jedite had been the one to last the longest was not something that he wanted to consider. Nephrite was _supposed_ to be working on finding ways to advance the Dark Kingdom's goals, but he seemed to have not even enacted a single plan!

As far as the long haired general was concerned, what had started with a fight against teenaged girls in short skirts should not have become anything more than some silly idea for a children's show.

However, he did know that there wasn't exactly an easy way to handle the current situation. He was well aware of what the Senshi were working with from the Moon Kingdom, which actually made it harder to take, since that did _not_ include ray guns, soldiers equipped with current equipment, and all the other strange gadgets that had been brought to bear on the Dark Kingdom's forces. That meant that things had taken a definite detour from what _should_ have been possible.

That was why he was currently in a warehouse area near Tokyo Bay. This sort of place was watched for things being brought into, and out of, a country, and the locals wouldn't be quick to expect anything to be up when nothing was going on outside of the place. But he was preparing for something more than the activity of shipping goods, and was certain to be unhealthy for a certain group of underdressed little girls playing 'heroine'.

The idea was as simple as it was elegant. In the usual sequence of events, the Senshi would make themselves seen first, and then their 'backup', whoever that was, would come second. As there was strength in numbers, the best thing to do would be to break up the group. Even though the Senshi might come in together, they wouldn't stay that way. He planned on having them being forced to go in different directions, so that they could be cut off from each other, and those helping them. Once that would be done, then they could be taken care of, one by one, until the last one was finally removed from his path.

Looking over the deceptively 'innocent' looking set up that was coming together, he was certain that none of the Senshi would be able to find a way to buck this strategy from its proper path.

* * *

"I want to be certain that everyone knows my stand on this," Samantha Carter growled.

"But ma'am, you're a scientist," commented a technician. "Certainly you can handle this...."

"I'm also a trained military officer with _lots_ of practice firing on live targets, and hitting them."

"Uhh.... understood. Comparisons about what you... your clones looked like when they... came about won't become major conversation."

"Good."

* * *

Doctor Fraiser looked over at her commanding officer and frowned thoughtfully. "You're planning on sending them off world then?"

"Nothing else that I _can_ do. Keeping them on Earth would bring up questions, and even those who know about our operation would wonder about why we have a device that make cloned variations of our officers that disappear in clouds of pink smoke," Hammond answered.

"You're not planning on making them all do the 'poof' thing?"

"Would you?"

"As a doctor, I can not simply condone the destruction of any life," Janet replied.

"But...."

"There _is_ something disconcerting about seeing yourself bounce after a dropped pen, just for an example."

"I would think so. But there is one thing that we should keep in mind."

"What's that?"

"Miss Aino is frightening with her ability to cause havoc with technology," the General sighed.

* * *

He had grown up in a Cimmerian village, faced battles and enemies aplenty, and had explored the continent his people had spread across. He had faced danger countless times, both off and on the battlefield.

Meeting one of one's gods required another sort of courage altogether.

"Scared?" asked Siler.

Konan considered that. "Not right word. Sometimes your language is..." Konan frowned and made a gesture of fluttering.

"Difficult?" asked Harriman.

"Hard to grasp?" tried Siler.

"Yes, like gripping wind," said Konan, his head moving up and down once. "Not 'scared' but is like big battle that can go wrong many way."

"Well, they're not really gods, if that helps," offered Harriman.

"They live many length human-time," said Konan. "They do magic. They have power we not, wisdom we lack. Yet sometime they still do stupid thing - bet when they no should, fight when should truce, trust when should not, not trust when should. Think maybe define - gods - depends on point-of-view."

"Well, but they put their pants on one leg at a time," said Siler.

"Urd wear pants?" asked Konan, thinking that didn't sound right.

"That's an old saying," explained Harriman.

"Ah," said Konan. "Like 'Going To Heaven In A Handtruck'? Have trouble understanding those."

"You've been talking to Miss Aino, haven't you?" asked Siler.

* * *

"So we're going to be shuffled to off planet," said Sam Catter, her ears flat against her head.

"It's obvious we can't fit into normal society as is," agreed Janeko. "Besides, it beats turning into pink smoke."

"Yes, I know, it's just..." Sam settled into her chair, letting that sentence trail off.

"Not our fault?" said Janeko. "So what did you make of that conversation?"

"Quantum clones? Our physical bodies looking as if we'd developed in some universe where things had gone different?" Sam shifted to free her tail out from under her. "This Vanir science is so strange that anything that it does just seems to immediately go into outright bizarre. Ourselves being a case-in-point."

"So there's a universe out there where apes never developed and some tree-dwelling feline took its place?" asked Janeko.

"That was what Urd said," said Captain Catter, closing her eyes.

"Well, at least we're not wearing those figure skating costumes," said Janeko.

* * *

"You can stop doing that," said Sam-senshi.

"Whatever," said Janet-senshi, leaping back down from the ledge. "It looks like I can leap twenty feet."

"Why did I have to be a 'magical girl'?" complained Sam-senshi.

Janet-senshi shrugged and spread her hands. "We can't do much about it other than go with it. You know the reasons for us being sent offworld as soon as possible. We're where your talents and mine can be put to good use."

Sam-senshi sent a flat look towards her colleague. "We could have gone to Japan. The last time we were here, a silver metal robot attacked me and then morphed into a duplicate. Now I'm Sailor SagittA, Senshi Of Gravity. I am not happy about this at all."

"You're 'gravity'?" asked Janet-senshi. "Are you able to fly?"

"I..." Sailor SagittA stopped, considered, thought some more.

Janet-senshi was relatively happy that Sam-senshi was being quiet now. The constant complaining had been getting on her nerves, and Janet-senshi was curious as to what she could do.

* * *

Sam-02 disconnected, blinking in some automatic reaction as she did so. "Fascinating."

"Indeed," said Janet-02.

"Though I have to wonder why you're wearing that maid outfit," said Sam-02 drily.

"Shows off my legs, which fall within aesthetic parameters which I can remember as being 'pleasing'," said Janet-02.

Sam-02 sighed and let her head hang forward. "You're going to cause some of these guys to think we're just mechanical girls out for a good time."

"We're robot versions of ourselves," pointed out Janet-02. "Our processing speed increased by fifty times, our strength and speed likewise, you have wireless connectivity, I have internal medical scanners, and a lot of things that could have given us all sorts of problems now won't. On the other hand, we have to recharge our fuel cells regularly, we don't heal - we have to be repaired, and we can't do some pretty normal biological functions."

"So?" asked Sam-02, sulking.

"So, we have to do something and we don't want to frighten people around us," pointed out Janet-02. "The whole 'Frankenstein' thing is embedded in Western consciousness and since we're stronger and faster and smarter..."

"We're going to intimidate and scare people," realized Sam-02. "So you're wearing a maid uniform to put people at ease?"

"Yeah, and I'm not going with the Three Laws Of Robotics quite, but I'm adopting bits," said Janet-02. "After all, if I run out of power - I want someone to recharge me as opposed to putting me in some warehouse to be dissected by government scientist types. No offense."

"None taken," said Sam-02, wincing nonetheless. "So while I've been here, you've been..."

"I accessed some Japanese manga called 'Chobits'," said Janet-02. "I found something close to our appearance, accessed the plotline, and adopted some into my behavior patterns."

"Such as?" prompted Sam-02.

Janet-02 shifted slightly, though it was all posture and expression and not a physical transformation, and for extra effect she lit up the triangle embedded in her forehead. "Please. Are you the 'special one just for me'?"

Sam-02 stared. "What was THAT about?"

Janet-02 smirked, losing the look. "It usually reduces even Jaffa to stumbling over their own feet and stuttering. It also pretty much reduces my perceived threat level to near nothing."

"What if someone says 'yes'?" asked Sam-02, thinking that this might accomplish the aim but sacrificed a few things like dignity and professional attitude.

Janet-02 smirked. "Watch this."

Sam-02 watched as Janet-02's eyes flashed and seemed to go flat, data fields scrolled across her eyes briefly.

"Analyzing. Pattern match invalid. Subject not 'special one.' Search pattern continuing," said Janet-02 in a flat mechanical voice.

"Whoa," said Sam-02.

Janet-02 shrugged, then turned off the act. "If I need to, I'll just find some tolerable poor schmuck to be my 'special one' then spend time doing doing some affectionate subroutine while working the hospital."

"That's kind of... perverted," said Sam-02, though she could see where Janet-02 had worked on this idea.

"Hey, just because I'm now RoboDoc doesn't mean I'm swearing off guys," said Janet-02.

"Well, I suppose," said Sam-02, stopping as she realized something. "People are going to expect me to have this mess too, you know."

"So? As your doctor, I prescribe some human interaction on a regular basis," said Janet-02.

* * *

"You should take it easy for awhile, stay out of the air," said Janet, inspecting Sam's wings. "You sprained this muscle here."

"I was trying to figure out how we can fly with these wings," protested Sam.

"It isn't like we've got a lot of medical supplies here in Cimmeria," said Janet. "I'm afraid you're grounded for a few days."

Samantha Carter pouted as she eyed Janet's wings. Nobody understood. They thought she was intoxicated with the feeling of flight under her own power. Nobody realized exactly how incredible an opportunity this was - it had to be some sort of localized anti-grav field or levitation.

"I've got to rig some kind of sling for this," said Janet, eyeing the appendage. "This is going to be a problem."

* * *

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" called out Sailor Moon.

The yoma obligingly stopped menacing the young schoolboys to turn and face this new threat.

"Oh, it is that teen rock group 'Stewed Cabbage'," said Sailor Jupiter. "I think I've got one of their albums."

"Focus, Sailor Jupiter," suggested Sailor Mars.

"Wow, someone bought one of our albums," said one of the young boys to another. "We must be getting better."

"Thank you very much," said one of the other boys, bowing. "If it isn't too much to ask, could you rescue us now?"

"They're a band?" asked the yoma, pointing. "I heard them screaming and torturing a cat, so I figured they were members of some rival dark kingdom."

"My guitar playing isn't that bad," protested a purple-mohawked member of 'Stewed Cabbage'.

"Ahem," said Sailor Moon. "Do you mind? I haven't done the introductory speech yet."

There were muttered apologies and indications that she should continue.

"Ah," said Sailor Moon, taking a deep breath. "For threatening talented musicians, in the name of the Moon, I'll punish you!"

"You wouldn't call them 'talented' if you'd ever heard them play," said the yoma.

"Hey!" protested the band member with the purple mohawk. "Ye'll give me a complex at this rate, ye will."

"I was going to put them with the others we have kidnapped," said the yoma, jerking her thumb at the warehouse behind her. "However, I think YOU will make better additions!"

"We'll see about that," said Sailor Moon.

* * *

In joining the JSDF, Keiichi Morisato had always been aware that there were certain possible situations that might not be easy for him to handle. He'd always been aware of the fact that he might have been called upon to drop his wrench and pick up a gun, if there was something like an attack on his base. Then there was how he was transferred to serve at the SGC, which meant that he was stuck doing work in a place where he might have to figure out a way to keep an alien monster from eating him. Of course, the chances of either situation, or something similar come up was highly unlikely, as even if there was some sort of emergency, he would be more likely the person keeping the power running, rather than shooting the guns.

"I think that you look very handsome at the moment," Belldandy commented with a soft smile.

Still, he did have to admit that it did seem that there were plenty of other things for him to go through, like the wearing of a tuxedo to a battle field. Though, being complimented by her was something that he could appreciate. "You do?"

"Certainly! Why, you look so dignified and dashing, don't you think?"

"Well...."

"Yes?"

"You don't think that I look all... stuffy in this suit?"

"Absolutely not," she told him, and smoothed his collar out. "You look very nice, and I'm certain that anyone who will see you will think that too."

"But isn't it a bit ridiculous? I mean, I'm already at a fight, which isn't my strength...."

"Don't worry. You look very handsome in that clothing. You look like it belongs on you."

"But am I supposed to fight, dressed like this?"

"You might not have to."

"Why not?"

"That yoma is moving away from them."

"Huh?"

* * *

Each of the Sailor Senshi were surprised when the yoma actually moved backwards. It was one thing to retreat after battle, but it was quite another to move away before the first strike. This wasn't exactly normal, and they knew that there was a problem here.

"What's it doing?" Mars growled.

Mercury frowned. "I'm not sure. There's no reading changes."

"Oh no...." Moon commented. "I hope that doesn't mean trouble."

"If it does, then we'll just have to handle it," Jupiter put in, smacking her fist into her gloved palm.

"You don't have to worry about that," the yoma informed them, darting forward to attack them from the side.

"Using the distance to give yourself a running start," the tall Senshi scoffed, side stepping the attack, and using a hit from the heel of her hand to send the monster flying off to the side.

The creature tumbled a bit before growling under its breath, and attacking again.

* * *

Kunzite had watched, gathered information, and now struck.

"Ohohohoho," said the silver-clad yoma. "I am Bauxite! Far more powerful than the energy harvesting yoma you've faced so far. Nor am I alone!" _snap!_

"Ferrite," indicated a red-spandexed yoma, leaping from the top of the warehouse to land on the street and make a fairly impressive crater.

"Sulfite," said a yellow-spandexed yoma as she congealed out of mist streaming from a manhole cover.

"Excite," said a pink-spandexed yoma as she slunk out of the shadows.

"Phosphite," declared a white-spandexed yoma, apparently teleporting in.

"Dendrite," said a nervous looking yoma in a gray bunnysuit.

The Senshi blinked. "Uhm, why are all of you in 'power ranger' outfits except her?" asked Sailor Mercury.

Bauxite let out a deep breath. "Well, you know how it is. The boss decided to move ahead with the schedule before Supply could finish outfitting us. We got a bunnysuit on ebay as the closest thing we could manage with the time constraints."

"Oh," said Sailor Moon.

"Oh my kami," said Sailor Mars. "This is what that Marine guy was talking about. We normally outnumber our opponents!"

"We outnumber you, now. Excite - keep the soldiers from interfering." Bauxite formed a sword out of her right forearm and hand.

"Fire soul!" tried Sailor Mars, hitting Ferrite.

"Your flames aren't hot enough to damage ME," boasted Ferrite. "My body is made of the toughest iron!"

The bunnygirl Dendrite pointed at Sailor Mercury. "Migraine!"

"AHHHH!" cried out Sailor Mercury, immediately having a cluster migraine.

"Having trouble breathing?" asked Sulfite, her vaporous form partially concealing Sailor Jupiter.

"Without your allies, you're nothing. Enough of this, it's time for you to DIE!" declared Bauxite.

"That's our line," said the purple-mohawked member of Stewed Cabbage. "You've insulted us long enough."

"What can you do against us?" mocked Bauxite.

"We're not only a Junior High grunge/punk band," declared purple mohawk. "We're a MARTIAL ARTS grunge/punk band."

"So?" asked Bauxite.

"Motorcycle Chain Barrage," declared purple mohawk.

"URK!" said Bauxite, a motorcycle chain wrapped around her throat.

"Loik I thought," said purple mohawk. "Ya need to say your special manuevers ta do 'em."

Bauxite's eyes narrowed and she pointed her left hand, morphing it into a chain weapon with which she attacked the band.

"Mebbe not," concluded purple mohawk as he dodged wildly.

_k-pow_

Bauxite staggered, a hole in her forehead. "Who?"

Rose petals blew on the wind, two men in tuxedos standing atop a building.

"Youth and energy shouldn't be wasted on such as you," declared Tuxedo Kamen, chambering another round. "I will not stand for it."

"Uhm, what he said," said Tuxedo Keiichi, lowering an odd tube to point at the yoma.

"What do you think you can do against us?" scoffed Bauxite, healing the wound in her head.

"Distract you," said Tuxedo Kamen.

"Moon Crystal Heart Attack!" said Sailor Moon, finishing her wind-up and launching her attack.

* * *

"Perimeter clear, hostages saved," said a soldier.

"That just leaves that guy watching in the shadows of that building over there," said another soldier. "He's got an IR trace and static field, so... Dark General?"

"Probably, our specialist should be able to verify." Sosuke Sagura did something odd then. He smiled.

* * *

Kunzite snarled as Bauxite was blasted back from Sailor Moon's attack - which seemed to be a bit different from his earlier intel.

"Dark General confirmed," came an unfamiliar voice.

Kunzite looked around, but all he saw was some dog. Waitaminute. He was on the roof of a building with only one locked door providing access. How did a dog get up here?

_bing bing chiuuuuuu_

"Aghhhhh," said Kunzite, feeling that. Since when did a dog open its mouth and send some energy blast at him that he'd barely shielded himself from in time?

_CHOMP!_

* * *

"!"

"What the heck was that?" asked a soldier.

"Sounded like someone discovering a bite is worse than a bark," said Sosuke, nodding wisely. "Can I see that grenade launcher?"

"Then what was that?" asked the soldier as the same voice began cursing in some odd language. Just from the tone, you could tell it was not polite.

"Watch," said Sosuke, suspecting what he was going to see.

* * *

_FWOOM!_ went the tube Keiichi had pointed at Dendrite.

A large rubber ball bounced off Dendrite's head, sending the bunnygirl tumbling.

"Such tactics won't work on me." Ferrite knew her steel body could have withstood anything Jupiter or Mars could hit it with.

_SLAP!_ went something a soldier put directly between her shoulder blades.

"Huh?" asked Ferrite, trying to reach behind her and grab whatever it was.

"Senshi! Duck!" called out Tuxedo Kamen as he pulled the trigger of his rifle, currently aimed at Ferrite.

_BLAM!_  
WHUMPF!

"eep!" said Ferrite, currently with a large hole in her and cracks nearly everywhere else. A shaped explosive charge appeared to be something else. "can I be excused? I don't feel so good."

"BAUXITE! FERRITE! Damn you, Senshi! You'll pay for this!" declared Sulfite.

"Hah! FIRE SOUL!" tried Sailor Mars.

"no, don't," tried a weakened but recovering Sailor Mercury.

_FWOOOM!_

"Oops," said Sailor Mars as soldiers converged on Sailor Jupiter and put the fires out.

"Ick," said Sailor Moon as the doggie came by and dropped something in front of her.

"Woof," said the robotic canine.

"Is that someone's leg?" asked Sailor Mars, thinking that was a little gruesome.

* * *

"Just you wait, Sailor Senshi," said Kunzite, applying a tourniquet. "I'll get you - and your little dog too!"

* * *

"We have signal," said a soldier. "Tracking device in place."

"You let him get away so that you could track his location?" asked Tuxedo Kamen.

"Yes, the device will broadcast again in two hours," said Teletha Tessarossa. "Most likely he will teleport back to his base during that time. The tricky part was finding a frequency not subject to the dampening field."

"I thought it was across the board," said Keiichi. "The whole EM spectrum."

"Ah, but not in subspace!" said Teletha. "Backengineering Goa'uld comm equipment from their Death Gliders found some interesting details."

* * *

_AUTHOR'S NOTES:_

Yes, Maybourne IS a bit OOC here in that there is absolutely no evidence in Stargate SG1 of him having a fondness for giant robot weapons pulling out giant swords and laying the smackdown on enemies.


	15. Chapter 15: Dark Kingdom Battle

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Chapter 15: Dark Kingdom battle

* * *

Kunzite teleported into his chambers at the Dark Kingdom base and growled to himself as he sat down on the nearest comfortable surface. He was hurting a lot, but the physical pain was secondary to the fact that he'd just been beaten by a bunch who shouldn't have been able to do half of what they had accomplished. His enemies were supposed to be cheerleaders with magical powers that they didn't know how to use. Instead, he got attacks coordinated between an overpowered blonde in a skirt, and combat ready soldiers.

It was simply such a ridiculous concept that shouldn't have come up, never mind actually be put into action.

But he'd gotten away with only a single major injury. Well, okay, he was missing a leg. Time would be needed to be able to repair the damage, but he was certain that he could fix his leg soon enough. All he needed was rest, a chance to concentrate, and enough time to do it in. Then he could get back to being in fighting form, ready to take on those fools properly.

The Senshi were already individuals who he planned on taking out, but he knew that those soldiers were to be added to his plans. As soon as possible, he was going to seek out their base of operations and destroy it, with them inside. He was certain that such a plan would be the perfect way for a smart general to act.

* * *

"Tracking station, reporting in," said the young man looking at the screen before him.

A voice crackled over his headset. *"Status?"*

"Signal confirmed. Bring your snowshoes. It's going to be a cold one."

*"Understood."*

* * *

"Tell me again why we have to wear these?" Rei asked as she held up an insulated set of pants.

Tessa shrugged back at her. "It seems that the base is in a very cold area."

"Which makes it easier to defend, since the ice sheets would be a natural barrier," Ami put in. "A defense that they didn't have to make."

"Exactly. Of course, we can't know how much is planning, and how much comes from necessity. But we do know that is where the base is."

"Great. But I don't know if I like the idea of wearing these," the Senshi of Mars muttered.

"I think that you should wear them. I am," Makoto commented.

"And why should I?"

"Short skirts and high heels, even on boots? I can already feel my knees knocking together."

"Oh, I agree on that."

"Then why complain about having to wear the protective clothes?"

"They're _color coded_. We're going to be going to someplace where the only color is white, and you want me to wear a big red suit?"

"That... is a good point," Tessa admitted with an embarrassed blush.

* * *

Konan knew that he wasn't exactly the most worthy individual around. He had never been one to simply follow anyone, and he had done things that weren't very nice to others, mainly enemies. Yet now he was on the verge of meeting one of his gods, and for any man, that was a major step in his life.

So, he stood tall, and walked into the room to face this goddess, prepared with every bit of knowledge of his people's religion that had been instilled into him as he had been growing up. Her physical beauty was something that he was prepared for, as well as any arrogance that she might have come up with.

What he was not ready for was the tall and very shapely woman wearing a dress that had a slit in the skirt that went from ankle to thigh. That garment allowed for a very generous view of a long length of leg as she sat on top of a table and filed her nails.

Turning her head at the sound of his footsteps, she smiled and tossed away the nail file. "Ah, you must be Konan."

"Then you are the goddess?" he asked.

"My name is Urd."

"Then you _are_ one of them."

"How do you know that?"

"By the stories. They speak of you."

"Trust me," Urd told him with a grin. "Wait until you hear _my_ stories."

The warrior blinked, and tried to make sense of what was going on.

* * *

"Winter wargames?" asked General Hammond walking with his companion down the corridors of Stargate Command.

"That's what the Pentagon is putting out. There's a Russian trawler in the area already so we're giving that story and the testing of a new targetting system in this small island in the Arctic." Major Paul Davis suppressed a yawn. "Sorry. Anyway the JSDF will be sending two fighters as escort with a cargo plane."

"What new targetting system?" asked General Hammond.

"The MADDOX-01," answered Major Davis.

"They got it working?" General Hammond asked.

"Mostly," said Major Davis. "We would have softened up the initial defenses with some long range missiles, but the Russian trawler there would make things a little dicey."

"One of _those_ trawlers?" asked the General.

"Yeah, we're pretty sure that real Russian fishing vessels don't have that level of communication or radar equipment," agreed Major Davis.

"What does the Pentagon want from SGC on this?" asked General Hammond.

"We're fielding small groups, so we're after some heavy hitters," answered Major Davis.

"The Russians aren't idiots, they'll know something isn't right," said General Hammond.

"We've got a second cover story under the first one, we'll leak details on a frequency and encryption they don't know we know that they know how to break."

* * *

"So the winter gear isn't necessary?" asked Usagi.

"Not when we go into Senshi mode," answered Ami. "Until then, yes."

Rei considered telling everyone that they didn't need transport. They didn't need assistance. They didn't need all this hardware.

However, having faced Ferrite, she now knew there might be fireproof yoma. She was a little less leery of the backup.

* * *

BOLO conferred with Bonaparte as the news went out. Neither of them would be able to participate, but data would be made available.

The problem was that things were already in motion. The attack had already been launched, planes lifting off as soon as 'Point D' had been properly worked out by the relevant authorities. Participation would be limited therefore to after-battle analysis.

It would, however, indicate whether this enemy was the Enemy that had struck on Refuge and other worlds.

* * *

The assault on the Dark Kingdom base would normally have been done by the five Inner Senshi through a Sailor Teleport. One by one, their number reduced as they faced true soldier yoma for the first time in combat. Finally Sailor Moon by herself would face Beryl and then Metal'la.

That was how it SHOULD have gone. Sailor Pluto was pretty sure that was how it had gone in HER past.

As it was, she pulled up a La-Z-boy recliner she hadn't remembered having, sat down with a good strong cup of tea, and watched as it went pretty darn differently.

She wasn't sure what she could do, or what had gone wrong, so she might as well just sit back and watch.

Though if Rod Serling popped up to give some expository dialogue, she'd be pretty darn grateful at this point.

* * *

"Five-one-niner, this is Delta-zero-two. Currently proceeding towards target. Over."

"Delta-zero-two, this is Five-one-niner. Expect rendevous at point Gamma and then proceed to target area. Over."

"Five-one-niner, that's a roger. You're radar-cloaked so please report any deviations in flight plan. Over."

"Roger Delta-zero-two. That's a copy."

* * *

Sailor Pluto's eyes were wide as she looked over the scene. Spaceships. Spaceships with AMERICAN markings and a set of JAPANESE fighters flying escort with a military cargo plane.

And on that cargo plane...

* * *

"zzzzz. Tuxedo Kamen-sama. zzzzz. Hot fudge sauce. zzzz. yummy."

Several soldiers, Senshi, and others eyed the sleeping Sailor Moon even as they moved slightly further away.

"So how does this work?" asked Sailor Jupiter, turning her attention to the gadget.

"It fits over your forearm and the grip settles into your fist," said Teletha. "If you make a sharp downward tug, a two foot long blade extends out and electrifies. Since you have a natural resistance to electrical attacks, this weapon can't be used directly against you."

"Hmmm," hmmmed Sailor Mars, enscribing wards onto a wooden sword. "You think this will work?"

"If nothing else it gives you a wooden stake to use on vampires," said Sosuke. "Utilizing the known weaknesses of your opponents is always a sound strategy."

Sailor Mercury merely reviewed files on her Mercury Computer, bringing up some data. She stopped at one point to indicate a particular file to one of the technicians. "Excuse me. What exactly is this?"

"What it looks like," confirmed Keiichi.

"A giant robot?" asked Sailor Mercury.

"No, just power armor," said Keiichi, shrugging.

"We didn't need giant robots in the Silver Millenium," complained a little black cat under her breath.

* * *

Sailor Pluto looked over the file herself, by shifting the point-of-view and peering over Mercury's shoulder, twitching slightly at the view of the MADDOX. She turned her attention to the group of spaceships and spit tea up when she got a better look at some of those aboard that flight.

* * *

"I can't believe I'm going into battle wearing a cheerleader outfit," griped Samantha-senshi.

"I just wish we'd been able to bring a completed unit," complained Colonel Maybourne. "Still, it should be an excellent field test of the prototype."

"They're so cute like that," said Janet-senshi, indicating where Hotaru and Ranma had fallen asleep and were leaning together.

"Yes," said Genma, getting a picture to send to his wife later.

"Shion, data regarding enemy units is incomplete," said Kos-mos.

"It can't be helped," said Shion. "This is what we have available."

"What's to know?" asked Sailor Venus. "They're the bad guys."

"I like that attitude," indicated Konan, checking his ammunition.

* * *

Nephrite wasn't sure why. He wasn't sure how. But somehow, someway, he had this feeling of DOOM having paused and briefly regarding him before passing by.

"-so what do you think?" asked Naru Osaka.

"I'm sorry, I was momentarily distracted," said Nephrite. "You were saying?"

* * *

The Russian "trawler" paused as his communication scrambler picked up something about a joint US-Japan attempt to pick up a spy satellite that had apparently landed somewhere in the Arctic circle.

Captain Badinoff sneered. American surveillance equipment and satellite technology was far inferior to the Russian products, of course.

"Boris? Are we going towards those coordinates?"

"But of course, Natasha," said the captain. "We'll get pictures of this for Fearless Leader."

"He doesn't like it when you call him that," gently chided the femme fatale.

"Which is why I make sure we are not bugged when I do so," agreed Boris. "Just get cameras ready."

* * *

In the darkness of her throne room, Queen Beryl waved her hands over her crystal ball and frowned to herself. Something had set off her senses, and she knew that she had to check it out, which she had started to do as soon as she thought of it. Not that anyone was going to complain about it, as each of the creatures that served her knew that questioning what she did was bad for their health. If they pressed their luck, they'd wind up blasted, frozen in crystal, or even worse, so, being the sort of beings that they were, they decided that it would be best if they kept their mouths shut, and their skins on their backs.

That allowed her to find what she could, though it was rather weak. Such a situation was something that she could not enjoy, and she actually growled under her breath as she felt the presence of a threat. "Something is coming to attack us, and I won't allow someone to think that they can do something like that."

"Allow us to take care of it, your Highness," said a female yoma as she and four similar ones faded into view.

"Ah. The DD Girls. So you want to take out our enemies?"

"But of course. We will teach them about just how foolish it is to attack the Dark Kingdom."

"I'm glad. Go then. Soon, we will see what will happen to...." Whatever the woman in the overly revealing outfit was about to say was lost as a series of explosions echoed through the throne room. "What was that?!"

"My Queen! They are blasting open the entrance to the human realm!" cried out an entering yoma.

"WHAT?!"

* * *

"Five-one-niner, confirmation of short range missile attack."

"Roger Delta-zero-two. Damage assessment?"

"Within expected parameters, Five-one-niner. We are go."

"That's a roger, Delta-zero-two. Beginning drop run now."

* * *

The DD Girls were not the typical sort of yoma, and not only in physical strength. Each of them tended to be smarter than the usual sort of yoma, as they were independent, and could formulate their own battle plans. With the others of their kind, there was only the ability to infiltrate the human world, and then to fight. But the DD Girls were different, and if they were to have simply faced the Senshi, they would prove to be very dangerous indeed.

After all, they were warriors among the yoma soldiers.

However, they had never faced heavy weapons fire before, and certainly had never experienced certain types of energy blasts before.

So, as they came out onto the frozen landscape that was at the entrance to the Dark Kingdom, they were understandably surprised. The land around the opening was blasted and actually had steam coming up in certain areas. Each of them could only stare in shock at the scene before them, but then they didn't have a chance to do more than that.

Within moments, they began to realize that this was no small force that could be easily taken out. Rather, there were a number of individuals appearing all around them. And it was clear that they were not just some foolish attack attempt by a unwise government.

Having so much weapons fire directed at them by those same soldiers that they couldn't find an open space made that much clear.

* * *

"Five-one-niner. Fliers are emerging from tunnels. I have tone."

"Roger, Delta-zero-two. You are clear to fire."

"Roger, Five-one-niner. Hellfire one launch. Hellfire two launch."

"Five-one-niner commencing personnel drop. All systems green."

"Roger. Good hunting."

* * *

They were soldiers. Contrary to some belief-systems, the vast majority had not joined the military to indulge sado-masochistic impulses or to indulge murderous traits. They were not inclined to burn villages to the ground in order to prove their manhood, nor off on some violence-power trip.

They were, however, well trained and able to commit acts of violence when it was deemed necessary. All of those gathered together for this little operation knew the scenario, though it wasn't until winged shapes erupted from the ground that they fully believed the briefings.

When they did, even though these were all special forces, some had doubts and fears come to the fore. The bogeymen of their childhoods made solid gave them pause.

Others among their number realized that these were BAD GUYS and the briefing had been apparently correct. This was a fight for human survival and freedom against supernatural forces that FED on humanity.

To this latter group, the bogeymen of their childhood being made solid was not something to fear. No, it was more that they had a target they could be very enthusiastic about shooting the heck out of.

"Protective ring around the Senshi," called out a team leader. "Special weapons, forward. Go to cover on three."

"HAHAHHAHAHAHAHA!" called out a flyer, diving towards them.

_!_ went several assault rifles.

_beep beep chiuuuuuu_ went four zat'nik'tel.

_FWOOOM!_ went a single RPG.

_chuk-chuk-chuk-chuk_ went something that looked like a paintball gun.

Pieces of flying yoma began raining down.

Then the MADDOX strode forward, light gleaming menacingly along the vulcan cannon as it began tracking targets.

* * *

"Looks like the holy-water-and-garlic-oil paintballs aren't effective against yoma," said a disappointed Maybourne.

"It was a longshot anyway," pointed out Teletha aka "Tessa".

* * *

"AHHHHH!" said a rabbit yoma, on finding a lot of hunters suddenly popping up all around her. She backed up until she realized she was back-to-back with her sometimes rival - a duck yoma.

The duck yoma apparently was thinking faster than normal. "You don't want me. It's not duck season. It's... RABBIT SEASON!"

"No, it's not rabbit season," said the rabbit yoma, pulling a carrot out of a pocket and munching on it. "It's definitely duck season."

"RABBIT SEASON!" yelled the duck yoma.

"Duck season," said the rabbit.

"RABBIT SEASON!"

"Duck season!"

Kunzite teleported out. "What's all this shouting about?"

Rabbit yoma looked at duck yoma, eyebrow raised. Duck yoma nodded.

"DARK GENERAL SEASON!" yelled rabbit and duck, ducking down.

"Oh shi-" managed Kunzite just before the noise level increased dramatically.

* * *

Beryl was contemptuous of normal humans, forgetting that SHE had been a relatively normal human at one point. Humans were cattle, batteries to be drained of life energy in order to feed the Dark Kingdom. Nothing more.

"Kunzite, report," demanded Beryl.

Silence.

"Kunzite, report!" demanded Beryl, putting her will forth to summon the General.

Nothing.

Beryl frowned. The DD Girls were already deployed. Nephrite was off in Japan spying on the enemies there. Now some stupid cattle were bleating about on the surface and Kunzite was apparently AWOL. Jadite and Zoicite were dead, which might have solved their incompetence but had left her with openings for the Dark General position she had yet to fill.

She turned her gaze to the scenes overhead, trying to figure out why the battle wasn't already over.

* * *

They were Senshi. Not that all of them particularly wanted to be. Senshi nonetheless.

Sailor Moon had, through training and feedback and experiments, upgraded her attacks slightly. Sailor Mars and Mercury and Jupiter - likewise. They had their starting out attacks, and at least one more level of power.

Just starting out was Sailor SaggitA. "Gravity Arrow."

"Interesting, you briefly increase the gravity at point of impact, crushing the target into itself," said Sailor Mercury, scanning everything.

"Iron Wall," called out Janet-senshi, aka Sailor Centauri, alias the Senshi Of Force.

"So you're Sailor V, I'm a big fan," enthused Sailor Moon, shaking Sailor Venus' hand.

"But of course. This is Sailor Saturn," introduced Sailor Venus. "And the guy is Ranma. And the big guy is Konan."

"You remind me of my sempai," said a dazed Sailor Jupiter, looking between Konan and Ranma and thoroughly distracted.

Ranma drew his blades and idly lashed out, causing a yoma to come apart. "We can do the formal introductions later, ya know."

* * *

Beryl's arrogance melted away from her, and if it had been possible she would have turned a lot paler. One thing to be facing a bunch of uppity cattle and some weak Senshi that they'd beaten before. The new Senshi were likewise of little concern.

Of another thing altogether was the appearance of SAILOR SATURN.

Things had not only gotten worse, they were now of such a level of completely bad that in order to stand a chance she would have to awaken Metal'la and even THAT might not be enough.

For the first time in millenia, Beryl knew that sharp metallic taste of fear.

She immediately set to severing the connection between the Dark Kingdom and the mortal world. Without this "pipeline" they might not be able to re-establish it, and certainly the Dark Generals would not be able to manage their own mini-gates without the existing connection.

If this didn't work though, that wouldn't matter much at all.

* * *

Initially the appearance of a foodsource attacking them had been viewed with scorn and met with overconfidence. After the first few hundred yoma had pretty much been reduced to dust on the breeze, shock had replaced scorn.

When you believe you are the strongest and most powerful, the top of the food chain, invincible, that was one thing. In their own field, in their own manner of combat, they WERE the strongest. Set them loose in an unarmed Japan or somewhere similar and they could feed almost completely uncontested. Wounds from simple arrows and even gunfire could be regenerated from within minutes.

When large caliber ammunition hit in sufficient numbers that bodily consistency attained the past tense, regeneration was simply insufficient to that cause.

Nor was that their only problem.

"BURNING... MANDALA!"

"Silence Glaive - Surprise!"

_fade-slash-slash-fade_

"For Earth! For Cimmeria! For the Asgard!" _Budda-budda-budda_

"Moon Princess Halation!"

"Shabon Spray - Freezing!"

"Jupiter Thunder DRAGON!"

"Gravity Arrow!"

No, the humans blowing them up was MORE frightening. At least with these magical folk there was a precedence and some understanding of the phenomena. Not that you could discount the magic-hurlers, but it would be as if a human were suddenly faced with their cattle intent on avenging their losses and doing a credible job of such. Their entire worldview was thrown apart just because the cattle was suddenly a serious threat.

Some couldn't deal with it, and ended up dust on the wind.

"Crescent Beam!"

"_Rapid Fire Vulcan!_"

"_MADDOX-01, you don't need to call out your attacks._"

"_I was feeling left out, Colonel._"

"_...OK. Understandable in current situation. Keep comm chatter minimal though._"

* * *

"Why is the island wavering?" asked Shion.

"Analyzing," said Kos-Mos. "Hyperspatial corridor in process of shutting down."

Shion blinked and quickly clicked on her communicator. "Colonel? The enemy is attempting to retreat to their dimensional pocket."

* * *

Shion blinked and quickly clicked on her communicator. "Colonel? The enemy is attempting to retreat to their dimensional pocket."

_"Damn. We'll have to pull back,"_ came the reply. _"It'll mean losing them, but we can always leave a present for them."_

"I can see what you mean, sir."

_"Exactly. This might be a let down, but we can make the best of it."_

"Yes, sir."

"Shion," Kos-Mos said simply, looking totally unconcerned as the land around her wavered.

"Yes?"

"It is not optimal for the enemy to continue their current course of action."

"That's right. If this wasn't happening, then we could conceivably totally defeat them. Their retreat makes it impossible for us to do, so we'll have to pull back, which _is_ a 'let down' like the colonel said. Not only will we have missed this chance to stop them, but they'll know that we can fight them. But unless you can stop them from escaping, then we won't be able to keep fighting."

"Understood," the artificial girl replied as a mask slid down over her face.

That surprised Shion, but more shocks were to come, as a circle of light started to spin around Kos-Mos' body. It was joined by more, each on a different axis, but with the blue haired girl at their center. They spun faster and faster, until they flared up, and seemed to grow wider, like the leading edges of a bubble.

And where they passed, the everything settled into solidity.

_"What the hell was _that_?!"_ came over the communicator.

"It was Kos-Mos, sir," Shion said dully. "She's managed to stabilize the island."

Kos-mos' mask slid up, and she turned to face the human woman. "That is correct, Shion."

* * *

At first, everything _had_ seemed to be going well, but then Beryl felt the connection that she'd been cutting solidify. That was _not_ supposed to happen. It meant that there wasn't going to be any sort of running away from the attacking forces.

When she checked and saw that there was no way that she could manage to try again, she yelled incoherently at the top of her lungs.

* * *

It was a simple thing. Being a great martial artist actually helped in a fight against the monsters, if for no other reason than that that most of the creatures couldn't fight. Their talents were more directed towards infiltration than combat, and they didn't have much coordination going between them.

Unfortunately, even great fighters did make mistakes, and Ranma made a slight one. He misjudged where he was stepping, and wound up slipping on some ice. A yoma with extendable tentacle-like appendanges took advantage of the error, and used it to get in a hit that sent him tumbling to the ground. Rolling for a bit, he came to a stop in a snowdrift with a deep groan.

"Ranma!" Saturn cried out, turning to reach for him.

"I'm alright," he told her, holding one shoulder as he tried to pull himself to his feet. "Really."

"But you're in pain...."

"I think that I really jarred my shoulder when I landed. And...."

Her eyes widened as she saw the red color of what was starting to ooze out from between his fingers.

"The monster tagged me a bit...."

Tears pooled in Saturn's eyes as she looked at him... but her eyes soon hardened as she turned to face the yoma that had attacked him. Only cold resolve filled those violet depths at the moment, and all the yoma felt an instinctual need to pull back at that moment. But it would not save them.

Saturn, Senshi of Silence, raised her Glaive to one shoulder and swung it across the air in front of her, nearly straight along the line of yoma in front of her. An arc of purple energy flew out from her slicing motion, flying out to blast the front ranks of the Dark Kingdom creatures.

Her next attack came when she lifted the Glaive and swung it straight down in front of her.

None of the yoma had a chance.

* * *

Beryl saw no choice. She awakened Metal'la, even with the tiny reserves of power she had to feed the monster's appetite.

As she knew would happen, she was consumed instantly - her form becoming the host of the malevolent intelligence that had planted its seeds within her long ago.

* * *

"There's a spike in the Dark Energy band," said Tessa as she read the signals.

"MADDOX-01," ordered Colonel Maybourne, still a bit disappointed that he wasn't the MADDOX pilot. "Is the amplifier set up?"

"_Just finished sir. Batter is coming up to the plate._"

* * *

"I SURRENDER!"

It was unthinkable for a yoma to surrender to a human. Impossible.

Nonetheless, it was happening.

The battle was quickly becoming less something that could be dignified with that term, and more in keeping with terms like 'rout' or 'massacre' or something similar. Yoma that would have been invincible to armies of Bronze Age or earlier level sophistication, or that could have wreaked havoc and ruled unopposed over areas where the locals were not heavily armed, were finding themselves a bit less invincible when their fliers were being picked off with air-to-air missiles and plasma bolts.

When an army of invincible yoma, three thousand strong, becomes a group of dozens of shellshocked yoma in less than fifteen minutes - there was a morale problem.

Not on the side of the human soldiers, various Senshi, an injured martial artist, and a Cimmerian barbarian turned "Rambo". No, their morale wasn't a problem.

Even those soldiers who had balked at being confronted with horrific beings (not all yoma could fit into the near-enough-to-pass-for-human even transformed category) from beyond were able to catch themselves and begin blasting away. Why not? Many human soldiers had qualms about killing another human being, they were simply trained to be able to do so when necessary. Police officers sometimes had to kill in order to save, and many of those didn't do so without doubts and emotional aftereffects. These were MONSTERS, and if they didn't surrender and were attacking - any doubt or hesitation vanished and weapons were wielded with all the accuracy of an elite force being brought to bear on a problem. Which they were, and it was, so it kind of fit.

Vampiric Entities From Beyond were becoming splashes of gore, and those who found themselves sufficiently intelligent to realize they were next tried that unthinkable tactic.

"WE SURRENDER!"

* * *

A single instant, less time than it took to draw a breath.

Ranma slashed and faded and figured out something his father had just shown him. "Vaccum Blades!"

Sailor Saturn blocked the chitinous blades of one yoma, then spun her Glaive and Surprised another.

Kos-Mos held her hands out, stabilizing the corridor.

Shion fired away with her zat gun.

The various Senshi fired off various attacks, gathering around Sailor Moon and the device their allies had retrieved.

Some yoma surrendered. Some died. A couple were blown away sufficiently far that they wouldn't even land anywhere near solid land.

Sailor Moon saw soldiers that she'd talked to and befriended on the way out, their armor insufficient against the attacks leveled against them.

Sailor Moon shed a tear, which seemed to glow unnaturally bright and congeal into something...

* * *

_K-SPLUTCH!_

"What is it, Boris?"

"I've never seen anything like it, Natasha my sweet. Except maybe that time..."

"Was that when we faced Mousse and Squirrel at the port and ended up swept away in that tiny boat?"

"That is it, my little baklava," agreed Boris. "This reminds me of that 'sushi surprise special' the fisherman brought us."

"I... surrender," weakly said the thing.

"It surrenders?" asked Natasha.

"Okay. Surrender accepted," said Boris, taking off his little black hat and placing it solemnly over his chest. "Natasha, use the double encrypted channel. Tell Fearless Leader we are bringing political refugee from nastybad decadent Americans and their puppets the Japanese."

"The Japanese aren't American puppets, they vote against them in the UN all the time," pointed out Natasha.

"Stick with the propaganda, Natasha-baby, otherwise they'll give us a smaller boat again," said Boris reprovingly. "At this rate we'll end up in a rubber raft counting icebergs."

"Oh yes," said Natasha, "the Japanese puppet government."

"We are bringing Fearless Leader a present," said Boris. "Maybe that'll put him in a good mood. It'd be nice change."

* * *

The ground erupted, Metal'la sent dark energy spears out to slay these mortal underlings who stupidly thought they had a chance.

"Amplifier ON," called out one of the insects. "Now Sailor Moon!"

"Right!" called out another insect, this one opening her hands to reveal a glowing teardrop?

"The ginzuishou!" realized Metal'la. "Its power will be mine!"

"Moon Crystal Power!" called out Sailor Moon, holding the crystal towards the device.  
"Venus Star Power!"  
"Jupiter Star Power!"  
"Mercury Star Power!"  
"Centauri Star Power!"  
"Saturn Star Power!"  
"SagittA Star Power (I can't believe I'm doing this)"  
Ranma put his hand over Hotaru's. He kind of felt left out, and wasn't certain it would do any good. Hotaru smiled at him briefly before returning her attention to what they were doing, so maybe it was okay.  
Konan felt the need to contribute too, and stretched one hand forward and tried to imitate whatever these girls were doing. If the gods were willing, he'd do what he could.

(Somewhere, Urd smiled and dropped a potion into a pool of water.)

Kos-mos' face-shield slid down into place, her stomach seeming to open and a spire of crystal emerging from her back.

Not too far away, as such things could be reckoned, Belldandy bowed her head over clasped hands, and she sang.

Black lightning slammed down from Beryl/Metal'la's claws, only to stop three-quarters of the way towards the sphere of light that seemed to shift through dozens of colors.

* * *

Pluto felt the wash of energy from where she was watching, knowing that the Pluto symbol on her forehead had just lit up. This might have happened when Nehelenia would have attacked baby Hotaru and the baby had gone through a sudden growth spurt, triggering a level upgrade on the various Senshi as her power manifested. As Pluto had not experienced that timeline, she was not familiar with the event - only knew about the effect.

Now it was happening way ahead of time, nor was it the only consequence.

* * *

Satellites oriented as a point of brilliance appeared near the Arctic, almost as if the sun had come out.

* * *

Sosuke felt a need to contribute. "Mercenary star power!"

Tessa, still aboard a ship, also felt something. "Technician star power!"

Commander Maybourne felt himself crying, as if something had touched some withered and neglected part of his soul and brought fresh life to it. He wiped his eyes and wondered what he could do.

"AW HELL!" said a feminine voice elsewhere in one of the aircraft nearby. "Not again."

"Cimmerian Star Power," growled Konan, feeling energy coming from SOMEWHERE.

Hundreds of soldiers felt a sudden wave of... serenity flowing out across the battlefield.

There was one who knew this was do or die, and who felt even her own confidence dimming. She rallied however, knowing this was her last chance. "I AM METAL'LA. I AM ALL POWERFUL! DIE!"

There was one who was not alone, she could feel the support of all of those around her. Some Senshi, some not, some not even born in this solar system. Yet she could feel their belief in her, in her cause, and their strength gave her a feeling that she could do almost anything.

The sailor suit vanished, revealing the garb of a princess.

"I am Sailor Moon," said the princess, before borrowing a phrase she'd heard from a soldier earlier. "Hasta La Vista, Baby!"

* * *

"Look, there's an aurora borealis," said a girl in Hokkaido.

"That's very unusual during the day," said her companion.

* * *

"So the amplifier blew out?" asked Colonel Maybourne, looking disappointed.

"Afraid so," agreed Tessa. "On the other hand, there's something we were able to obtain after that burst."

"Oh?" Colonel Maybourne brightened. "What's that?"

* * *

"Well, other than a hope that the mop up operations can find some of the equipment that these guys were using, we're going to have a housing issue soon," Tessa informed the colonel.

Maybourne frowned at her. "But the only way that would happen is if we were leaving with more people than we brought with us."

"Exactly."

"Then, we have...."

"'Prisoners of war' would probably be the best term to use."

"Any more generals?" he asked.

She shook her head ruefully. "We weren't that lucky. But we did get a bunch of yoma out of the deal."

"_We_ have a group of those creatures that have been attacking Japan?"

"And they're all looking for the chance to show us how good and obedient they are. It's clear that they don't exactly think of us with respect, but there is some sort of 'position by strength' system going on through their culture."

"Meaning?"

"They're going to do what they're told. In their 'world', when someone is strong enough to... defeat their previous master, that person becomes their new one."

"And since we just blew up everyone above them, we get them."

"Exactly."

"As a colonel that I knew when I was younger used to say," Maybourne said, pulling out a cigar and biting onto the end, "'I love it when a plan comes together.'"

* * *

The medic continued to check the spot where the teenager had been injured with the care and skill that she had been trained to use, and acted like she wasn't noticing the girl nervously fidgeting next to them. It was astonishing to see that a girl who had just managed to destroy entire waves of monsters with a single swing of her weapon was looking uncertain and afraid. Of course, it became perfectly understandable when she noticed how certain violet eyes noticed the nicely defined body of the boy, and how the girl tended to blush when they did so.

So, she merely continued her work, and stayed as unobtrusive as she could to allow the young couple to focus on each other.

And the boy in question found himself to be rather observant at the moment. "What's with ya?"

"What?" the violet eyed girl replied. "What do you mean?"

"You're actin' like your clothes ain't fitting right. Ya don't have a problem with seein' blood and stuff, do ya?"

"Oh, no! I even think that it might be nice to be a nurse.... It's just that...."

"What?"

"You got hurt!"

"So?"

"I was there! I could have done something to help you! Block the attack, or something," Saturn blurted, withdrawing a bit as she said the last sentence.

"Is that it?"

"Yeah...."

He flicked her forehead lightly. "Stupid."

"Huh?"

"I'm a martial artist, and so there'll be times when I get hurt. We knew goin' in ta this, we could get hurt, or even killed. It's stupid ta think that ya can always stop it from happenin'. Ya just do your best ta stop it from happenin'."

"But I did, and you still got hurt!"

"Yeah, but it ain't like ya were bein' lazy. And d'ya know what's just as important 'bout keepin' your fightin' partners from gettin' hit?"

"What?"

"Makin' sure that when they do get hurt, they can stay alive and safe. And ya did that for me. If I'd had ta fight those monsters immediately, I'd have been fightin' _way_ below top form. Ya made sure that there was no way that they could hurt me before I could defend myself. Thanks."

Saturn's face turned a bright pink under the praise, and she nodded in response, as she was uncertain of her voice at the moment.

* * *

This was not supposed to be happening.

A fifteen year old Ranma Saotome was not supposed to be on some weird hybrid cargo plane that was currently flying along the Oregon coastline. He certainly was not supposed to be with a fourteen year old Hotaru Tomoe. The two were most definitely not supposed to share embarassed looks with Minako Aino having decided to stretch in her sleep and now be lying across both laps.

They were NOT supposed to be with beings who were most definitely not human.

One of those NOT human types was not supposed to be looking back.

"Scans have detected time/space anomaly," said the blue-haired girl. "Attempting to analyze."

Sailor Pluto cut the connection. Then considered what she had seen.

Beryl was gone. Metal'la was gone. The Dark Kingdom was kaput. This was good.

Everything else was completely wrong, and the worse part was that she felt she was still missing a few pieces of the puzzle.

* * *

Nephrite had felt the dizziness, the sense of dislocation, and suddenly it was as if a fog had been lifted from his head.

He REMEMBERED suddenly in full detail. He had been one of the Shittenou, the four Generals serving Prince Endymion. He had been the Court Astrologer, and practitioner of a powerful form of magic based on that discipline.

It had not saved him when Beryl had approached him one night and-

"Is something wrong?" asked Naru.

"Unpleasant memory bubbling up," said Nephrite. "We'll have to postpone this little outing for now. I'm afraid I just remembered some details I need to attend to."

There was more of course, it took nearly fifteen minutes before he could get away and consider the full picture he was getting from those memories.

When he did, he was still staggered by it. He had been the puppet for so long, stumbling around in a dark fog. Now it was clear again but what was he to do?

* * *

Samantha Carter twitched and sipped on her coffee.

Things... were not terribly comforting at the moment. Her nice, solid, stable, dependable, mathematically balanced worldview had recently come under assault. She was still getting by on coffee, a lack of sleep, and trying not to pay attention to certain things going on around her.

They'd recently faced Hathor taking over the base with something along the line of super pheromones, and other than a brief time doing lectures - she hadn't gotten that much sleep recently.

Something was always going wrong. Alien devices to figure out. Fortunately, they had a scientific expedition that was coming up, and riding herd on some astronomers would be nice and peaceful.

After all, it was just to watch a black hole doing a total eclipse on a companion star, and there was no sign of Goa'uld activity on P8X 987. It would be relatively calm and sane to be among scientists again.

* * *

As the elevator doors opened, Jack O'Neill looked out on a corridor that was buzzing with activity. It wasn't exactly the regular sort of base, with the structures being above ground, but that didn't change the familiar flavor of the place. This was a military installation, and he was long familiar with such places. However, he tended to like this one better than a lot of other postings, and that didn't come from the fact that there were a lot more curves in the uniforms. After all, where else could he be so close to field work, go home in the evenings, and work with good friends?

Grinning slightly to himself, he nodded to the other personnel as he made his way to his destination, and knocked on the open door.

"It's open," Carter called out from where she was looking over some scientific equipment.

"I can see that, Carter," Jack replied. "There is no 'door' blocking the 'doorway', which means that it is open."

She gave him an embarrassed look as she turned to him. "Sorry about that, sir."

"I understand. Sometimes I forget that you've got an egghead in there. Somewhere."

"Ah... yeah. Well, I've kind of been distracted."

"Heard about that. Multiple copies of you?"

"And Janet. Not something that you get up and expect to happen."

"Might have been fun to see."

"Sir?" Sam asked, wondering if there was something about her commanding officer that she should know about.

"Hey, even if you're an egghead, you're a cool egghead, Carter."

"Ummm.... Thank you, sir."

"You're welcome. Of course, it must have been... interesting to deal with."

"You might say that. And I hear that you had an interesting day of your own."

"That it was. Kind of weird having women do that sort of stuff, and now that one scientist won't look me in the eye. Not that I understood what was going on. Confused the hell out of me," O'Neill admitted.

"Sir, there is an explanation for them acting in that way...."

"I know all about the 'power of flowers', and it isn't about that. I just don't get why they were so intent on coming after me that they started fighting," he commented, and took on a self deprecating grin. "Maybe it was my winning looks."

"Probably."

"Well, there you go."

"Funny, sir."

"I try. And now we get to go to Hanka," the colonel commented with a grin, rubbing his hands together.

"You excited about this? We're supposed to be escorting scientists on this mission too."

"They're not just scientists, Carter. They're _astronomers_."

"What.... Oh, right. You should have a nice time with that."

"I sure as hell am planning on doing so."

"It should be something easy and comfortable, sir."

"The team could use one of those."

"I agree, and I'm already making sure that I'll be ready to go. But I haven't seen Daniel for a bit...."

"Him? After what happened on that last planet, he said that he needed to go and get all relaxed. Sounded good, so I let him get to it," Jack told her. "What could happen?"

* * *

Daniel knew that some people might have thought that his plan was effeminate, but he really didn't care about such things. After years of working in cramped storerooms, huge libraries, and the many places that his field had taken him, he'd learned that there were certain things that one just needed to get the kinks out. For him, it was a bath, which he definitely needed after his experiences on the planet that Urd had recommended.

The water was hot and inviting, and he was pleased that he'd gotten it set up just how he'd liked it. He was still a bit sore and stiff, and this would allow him to work that out in time for the mission. He'd already set up his pack, not that he'd needed to really worry about that, given that they were only going to watch over some other scientists on a world that had been friendly ever since they'd made contact.

Certain that he'd have time to relax, he climbed into the tub, and slid into the water, letting its warmth settle into his body. It was soothing, comfortable, and a place that he could just let himself relax in for as long as he needed to. There would be no grants to worry about, no translations of ancient Goa'uld artifacts, and certainly no one out to do him harm.

At least, that was the case until he saw a light shining right in front of him. He wasn't sure if it was coming from above or below the waterline, as he didn't get a chance to look before he saw a foot in what looked like an odd boot. Looking up some bare legs, he saw the clothing first before he saw the pretty girl wearing them. And then he took note of the familiar blue marks on her face.

Unfortunately, that was the same time that she noticed him. "AHHH! A pervert!"

"Wait!" he protested as he scrambled to get some distance between them. "I'm not...."

"I'll teach you to do something like this."

"But I'm not a pervert!"

"You are!"

"No, I'm not!" he declared, shooting up so that he could give a show of strength... which revealed what the water had making look blurry. "Oh hell."

"PERVERT!" she screeched, and used her mallet to bash him right in the head, knocking him silly.

Daniel Jackson, archeologist and member of SG-1, collapsed against the side of his tub, and didn't look like he would be getting up soon.

For her part, Skuld gave a nod of satisfaction at what she had done... until she realized that she wasn't in the bathroom that her sister might have used. This was a man's bathroom, and it was clear that her sister hadn't been there. In fact, she was reasonably certain that this place was not the same area that she'd been aiming for. And if she'd messed up her arrival, that meant that she'd wound up intruding on the space that an inhabitant of this world had claimed as his own.

The black haired Asgard looked down at the currently unconscious human.

* * *

"Headache, Daniel?" asked Jack.

"Yeah. Belldandy had another sister come and visit," said Daniel.

"Take anything for it?" asked Carter.

"Two Migraine Formula Excedrin," answered Daniel. "I guess the Vanir have some problems with their transportation system."

"Yeah, I got that impression too," admitted Jack, shifting his pack around.

"See you turned back to male," observed Daniel.

"All he had to do was expend the energy," said Sam. "Since the transformation increases strength and durability, it was fairly easy to work out a way to burn that off."

"Oh?" asked Daniel, curious.

"Yup," said Jack. "Don't like being a girl." He glanced at Samantha. "Not that I have anything against women, I just prefer retaining my own gender."

"Understood sir," said Sam, smirking slightly. "Though you make such a cutie."

"Ah ah ah," chided Jack.

"You're in a good mood," noted Daniel, rubbing his temple briefly. "So what are we going to see after this eclipse begins? I mean it IS black, and it IS a hole."

"Well," answered Jack mock-thoughtfully. "It MIGHT be a black hole."

Jackson winced again. "Hey, I've already got a headache. Give me a break here."

Sam went to his rescue. "No, Daniel, you're right. You can't actually see it, not the singularity itself. It's so massive not even light escapes it. During the totality of the phase, we should see matter spiralling towards it."

"Actually," said Jack, "it's called the accretion disc."

Sam and Teal'c looked at Jack, Teal'c raising an eyebrow. Daniel started up the ramp apparently not registering it immediately. "Well, I suppose it's understandable why the local population would be afraid of something like... what did you say?"

"It's just an astronomical term," said Jack, shrugging.

"You didn't think the Colonel had a telescope on his roof to just look at the neighbors, did you?" asked Sam.

"Not initially," said Jack, stepping through the gate.

* * *

The breakup of the "war games" had seen some groups mingling and going to different destinations.

Such as the group that had debarked in Japan.

"So what's it like to visit strange new worlds? To seek out new life, and new civilizations? To boldly go where no man has gone before?" asked Tessa.

"It's not just a job, it's an adventure," answered Ranma.

"What's that you're reading, Minako-chan?" asked Hotaru.

"Flight manual for one of the new aerospace fighters," said Minako absently. "This is SO cool."

"Oh?" asked Ami, curious herself.

"Guys, we're at this art exhibit to look at the art, not trade adventure stories," said Rei. "I've got a report to do on this at school."

"Yeah yeah, let's get this over with," said Ranma, looking supremely bored. Pictures and sculptures and stuff like this really had very little interest to him.

"I WILL TAKE YOUR ENERGY FOR THE DARK - err excuse me - FOR ME!"

"Whattaya know, a leftover yoma," said Ranma, spotting the gaudily dressed female in the lobby. Glancing over, he noticed that the girls were ducking en masse into the bathroom. Maybe he ought to wait for them?

* * *

"So what have we got?" asked Jack.

"The plague was picked up by one of those new scanners supplied by the BOLO and we immediately went to full decontam," said the astronomer.

"Remind me to send our little friend a 'thank you' card," said Jack to Teal'c.

"We picked up a Goa'uld attack vessel on the scanner and we've been 'playing dead' ever since," said the astronomer.

"Why?" asked Daniel.

"Because it's better than really being dead?" said the astronomer in such a manner that he apparently thought it was obvious.

"That and this way we can maybe figure out what their plan is," said Jack. "What about the native population?"

"Over five hundred dead by the time we figured out what was going on," said the astronomer. "By then - they were already infected and we couldn't do much. Those of us who were infected here were immediately put in quarantine and given massive doses of antibiotics. Several died anyway but if we hadn't gotten those scanners - it would likely have been a ghost town when you arrived."

"Has anyone reported back to SGC?" asked Jack.

"No sir, we didn't want to alert the Goa'uld," said the astronomer.

"Well, General Hammond is off giving some kinda report to the Joint Chiefs," said Jack. "Daniel, if you'll return and make a report, you can bring Doctor Fraiser back with you. Then we can try to figure out what our visitor here has planned."

* * *

General Hammond sat down at the desk, nodding briefly at Major Davis in a nearby chair, then over at Colonel Maybourne and some woman - who was wearing a uniform and reading some sort of Japanese comic book?

General Hammond's eyes narrowed. The infamous 'expert explainer' no doubt. Too bad she wasn't close enough he could read her name badge. There were times he could use someone like that to interpret Captain Carter's reports.

"General Hammond," said one of the Joint Chiefs, nodding and *smiling*.

There were, in fact, a number of smiles and generally pleased looks being sent his way. There were also some displeased looking individuals, but everyone else seemed far more pleasant than not.

"We'll start in a few minutes when our 'guests' finish arriving," said one of the Generals.

* * *

It was actually quite easy to manage to get to where the crowds were running away from. All that one had to do was to keep calm, and pay attention to what was going on. That would allow for that person to be able to find the paths that would make it easier to get around, and to find ways to slip out of sight, especially with everyone else panicking. As a result, that person could simply slip away from the other crowds, and get to where they would going. Instead of wasting time trying to run through the mass of people, the individual could let them go, and be on her way quickly enough.

Haruka Ten'oh was perfectly able to do exactly that.

Of course, she was rather surprised by the situation, but then that was added to the fact that she'd been a bit... put out with having to look over all these pictures. 'Bored' wasn't the word, as she liked to admire things of beauty, and enjoyed the atmosphere of classiness that a museum had. However, she was also not a huge fan of those things, and it was only Michiru's interest in such artistic pieces that kept her from just taking a lazy stroll through the place rather than standing there.

When she heard the unmistakable sounds of a monster attack, she glanced over at her partner, who had been leaning forward to admire a portrait. "Seems like trouble's starting."

"Then we should deal with it," Michiru commented, and held her transformation item where only her lover could see it.

"Let's go then."

"I was thinking the same thing."

"Good," Haruka replied, and the two of them slid around the edges of the departing patrons as they made their way over to the scene of the incident. She firmed up her expression, as it was clear that there was a battle that was about to start, and didn't need to look to see that Michiru would do the same. This was not a time to take it easy, as they knew that this was a serious matter, and they fully expected to have to fight hard and directly.

What they didn't expect was to see a pigtailed boy bouncing around as the yoma tried to attack him.

"It doesn't look like he's even trying to get away," the racer murmured in confusion.

Michiru blinked, and listened hard to what was going on. "I think that he's _mocking_ it."

"What sort of idiot _is_ he?"

"Apparently not a very self protective one."

"He could be in for some trouble then."

"And he'll need to be helped."

"There's nothing that will help us in letting it get him."

Flipping out her own transformation rod, Haruka nodded. "Then we need to see it that he gets some help."

"Fire SOUL!" called out a definitely female voice, and a blast of fire hit the monster, shocking both the racer and the violinist.

A girl in a blue skirted Senshi fuku showed up along side a brunette in a red skirted one, who she frowned at. "Remember that there are works of art here, Mars."

"I know that," the brunette commented. "Our aim just has to stay right on track."

"Crescent Beam!" called out a blonde as she leapt in and blasted the monster.

"See? Venus has the right idea, Mercury."

"I know that. It's just that I wanted to make a reminder," the blue haired girl commented.

"But this yoma's attacked innocent people and really ruined the time that everyone was having here. It's going to have to be punished," another blonde, this one with her hair up in an odd style commented.

"That _is_ why we're here, Sailor Moon," a tall girl in a green skirted fuku commented.

"Jupiter...."

"Other Senshi?" Michiru whispered from the hiding spot with her lover.

"Looks that way," Haruka agreed.

"This isn't what I thought would happen."

"Then we have to see about what we could do best for this situation."

"We could watch."

"That might be for the best."

"True. They _are_ pretty cute."

Raising a brow in mock judgement, Michiru looked up at her partner.

Instead of looking repentant, the short haired blonde merely gave her a smirk of amusement.

"You're so naughty."

"I know, and you like that."

"I'll admit to that. Though we'll have to wait for such enjoyment."

"Yeah. They might need help."

"And we know where they could get it from...." the green haired girl began.

However, as she spoke, the yoma launched an attack with some thrown weapons at Mercury, who wouldn't have been able to easily dodge them. Fortunately for the blue haired Senshi, a bladed weapon made its debut, and sliced the projectiles into harmless pieces. They fell to the floor as the bearer of the weapon, a slim girl with a violet eyes stepped forward.

"I am Sailor Saturn, and I will not let you hurt anyone, especially my friends!" the newcomer stated firmly.

The yoma looked as shocked as the pair of Michiru and Haruka felt.

"She's... SAILOR SATURN?" the short haired blonde choked out.

"Apparently," the Senshi of Neptune answered. "And if she's with them...."

"Then they definitely don't need us for this."

"But what her presence could mean for the future is not so easy to dismiss."

"Things just got very... 'interesting'," Haruka said flatly.

"Very true."

The two of them looked at each other, and knew that this was going to change the situation as they knew it.

* * *

"Sailor Saturn, the Soldier of Sacrifice, whose awakening foretells the end of the world," said Haruka, looking serious.

"Who is currently scolding a boy for jumping around and aggravating his injuries," said Michiru, looking confused.

"This just seems so... wrong," said Haruka.

Michiru nodded, but felt inclined to add. "They look like a cute couple."

"I would have expected the 'end of the world' to look a little more menacing," admitted Haruka.

"That is so," said Michiru.

"They act like children," said Haruka. "They have seen nothing of real battle."

Michiru nodded. They would have to continue watching, but it seemed quite likely.

* * *

The hustle and bustle had returned to Refuge.

"Get those power converters to the mill."

There was a riot of colors, especially from the pennants and curtains blowing in the breeze.

"Giles! You left your gate open again! Get these sheep out of here!"

It wasn't just some military base, it was a community.

"FRESH FISH! FRESH MOUNTAIN TUNA! GET IT HERE!"

There were salespeople specializing in wares.

"Get that timber up to the dojo. We're expecting rain tonight."

There were craftsmen and laborers.

"Evening, Mister Saotome, Sergeant Ringo."

There were teachers.

"How bad's the storm going to be?"

"Observation says the clouds are pretty thick, expect another downpour."

There were problems though.

"So what's the situation?" asked Genma.

"We struck something," said the laborer, gesturing to the excavation behind them.

"Hmph," hmphed Genma, looking over the thing. "Some buried statuary?"

"The BOLO doesn't remember anything about it, so it may have been buried before he was even constructed," said the laborer.

"Well, go ahead and get some of those military people involved," said Genma. "If nothing else they can winch the stuff out of there. Who knows, it may be something valuable."

* * *

"This can't be," said Doctor Fraiser.

"She's infected, isn't she?" asked Sam.

"No," answered Janet. "She's not."

"Well, what's wrong then?" asked Sam.

"There are traces of the material the Stargates are made of in her bloodstream," answered Fraiser.

"Naquadah?" asked Sam, wondering if that meant the girl had a parasite.

"Yeah," said the doctor. "Now it's possible that... what the heck?"

"That didn't sound like something expected," pointed out Sam.

"One of the things we've recently put together with the BOLO's help are these med-scanners," said Doctor Fraiser, holding up a gadget.

"It's a salt shaker," said Sam.

"No, this is a scanhead, it has a wireless connection to this," Doctor Fraiser said while holding up a larger box.

"Didn't Doctor McCoy use that in Star Trek?" said Sam, thinking it looked awfully familiar.

"I think that's where the outer design came from," said Doctor Fraiser. "It still has some bugs though. It's showing some device near her heart, but none of our Earth-based equipment is picking it up."

"Well, it IS a new technology," said Sam.

"We'll have to take her back and try to figure out if it's some sort of malfunction," said Janet.

* * *

Mamoru Chiba closed the door behind him, and took comfort in the fact that there were armed guards nearby.

This was, after all, one of the very Dark Generals that they had been recently fighting. Even though he hadn't seen as much action as those Senshi.

"You requested to see me?" asked Mamoru Chiba.

Whatever he expected, Mamoru didn't expect the Dark General to kneel before him.

"Prince Endymion, I renew my vows of loyalty to you and your cause," said Jedite.

* * *

She'd tried getting information in her normal methods, and hit a wall. She had no idea what was going on.

She had seen the evidence that SGC was involved, and observed brief images of increased activity. Unfortunately, some sort of static had cut in and she'd ended up getting Gilligan's Isle reruns when she'd tried to look at a part of the past.

Which had been especially odd as she didn't remember an episode where the Three Stooges had visited Gilligan's Isle. Not that she particularly followed that series, but it had still seemed odd.

She stepped through, knowing that in Cheyenne Mountain, she'd be able to find answers. She had made sure her disguise field was set so that she looked like a soldier - albeit a tall tanned female soldier with long hair - so that wouldn't be a problem.

Except that this didn't look like Cheyenne Mountain or the SGC. Sailor Pluto looked wildly around, confirming that she'd somehow ended up standing in some sort of conference room?


	16. Chapter 16: Pluto and Pentagon

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Chapter 16: Pluto and Pentagon

* * *

It didn't take her long to recognize that she was certainly in an American military installation. There were all sorts of little hints, like the way that labels were in English. That was what she had expected, as she'd planned on going to one in the first place. Her problem was not with that factor in particular.

However, she did have to admit that there was a definite issue with her placement, as she knew that there were no conference rooms of this size in the Cheyenne Mountain base. She couldn't doubt that was what the room was, given that the place had a long tables, chairs comfortable enough to sit in for long hours of discussion, and equipment for showing off information. It was just that the place that she had planned on going to didn't have such a space for them.

But as she could easily identify where she was, there was no reason to be wondering when they had remodeled the SGC. After all, the Pentagon was not even in the same time zone as the other base. Being in it was a problem in and of itself, as this was the center of the American military structures. To be caught in the SGC was to be caught in a base where such things might happen, but if she was caught in this place, she'd be thought to be, at the very least, a spy.

And as she looked around the room, she hoped that she wouldn't be in for some major headaches.

* * *

Second Lieutenant Asaro looked at the video recording and sighed. "Did those two actually think that they could get away without being noticed."

"They are teenagers," Miyazawa, her Japanese counterpart, replied.

"True, and they are not going to be usually very experienced. But teenagers can be dangerous."

"How so?"

"My big sister's kids. Lots of hormones, and sometimes, not a lot of sense."

"Ah, understandable. But in this case, I doubt that they have been trained."

"But they could still be a problem," she replied. "Did your people manage to find out who they are?"

Miyazawa just gave her a level look back.

"Yeah, right. What was I thinking? Of course you know."

"It wasn't very hard, to tell the truth. Both are fairly well known in their own areas, both in interests and geography. When one is a promising musician and artist, and the other has success racing both on foot and on motorcycles, it's not hard to determine who they are."

"So, the bosses know?"

"The bosses know."

"To bad that these two don't know. They could be in for a big surprise."

"At least they'll get a chance to have their lives be more interesting," he told her with a shrug.

* * *

The situation wasn't something that Sailor Pluto wanted to be in. She had to think fast, as she was currently not in a good place at the moment. Being in the Pentagon was not something that one did on a simple day's trip. Just thinking about the security around her made her realize that this was not going to be a good day.

At the moment though, her most important interest was in avoiding any trouble that she might be in.

* * *

"Ah, Lieutenant Mayo," said one of the soldiers. "Here's your badge."

"My... badge?!" asked Setsuna, automatically taking the badge from the older looking guy in the dress uniform. Sure enough it read "Lieutenant Susan Mayo, USAF, Yokotsuka AFB." Waitaminute. WHAT?!

"This way please," said the soldier, escorting her to a seat in the conference room.

Setsuna Meiou wasn't prone to panic attacks, therefore she squelched the developing one. Crowded conference room. Two projection screens. More brass than you'd find in your average hardware store. Cameras EVERYWHERE.

General Hammond? So this was something to do with the SGC?

"Well, we'll start," said one of the Generals. "Major Davis? If you'll summarize."

"Everyone here knows about finding the Stargate at Giza and about our first mission, which went to the world Abydos. You've heard about how we encountered the Goa'uld known as Ra, and how we managed to blow him up before he could target Earth."

"You brought on Professor Tomoe prior to this, am I right?" asked an aide.

"Yes, Professor Soichiro Tomoe," said Major Davis, clicking a file on his laptop. A projector display showed an image of the Professor and his daughter. "His theories of space/time, wormholes, and travel through the universe were definitely of interest. The more we investigated, the more we found to indicate that if anyone could intuit out the mechanisms behind the Stargate - it would be Professor Tomoe."

"Despite the fact that he's a Japanese citizen," pointed out the aide.

"He and his daughter have both signed full nondisclosure agreements," said Major Davis.

"We're a little concerned as apparently more Japanese citizens have gotten involved, and there is evidence of a security leak," responded the aide.

"Of course we will cooperate with any such investigation," said Major Davis. "Following the burial of the Stargate on Abydos, the program was shut down and most of the personnel was transferred elsewhere. This changed when the Stargate opened and a raiding party from Chulak attacked the base and kidnapped personnel."

"Including the daughter of Professor Tomoe," pointed out the aide. "She's all of what now?"

"Twelve," said Major Davis. "She was apparently quite friendly with a number of the soldiers on base and was delivering lunch for the guards on duty. Professor Tomoe was part of the rescue force."

"Nonetheless, a civilian child was caught up in these events," said the aide.

"Unfortunately, yes," said Major Davis. "Part of the stipulations made by Professor Tomoe was that we would contact the Saotome family if anything happened to the Professor and his daughter."

"More foreign involvement," said the disapproving aide.

"Major Turner has gone on record with his dislike of involving people with no ties to the US in a military operation," said General Howard.

"I see," said Major Davis, knowing now who the new 'shut down the SGC' name was. Major Turner kind of looked like Larry Linville from that old MASH series to him. Figured he'd be trouble.

General Hammond spoke up. "Have we investigated Area 51 in case the leak is coming from there?"

"It's possible," admitted Major Turner.

"In any case, we have some evidence that paranormal abilities are possessed by certain members of the populace," smoothly continued Major Davis. "You understand that this is classified extremely confidential and none of this is to be spoken of outside this assemblage?"

"Ah, we get to the boogiemen," said Major Turner.

"Originally we were going to try and protect everyone involved but apparently word got around," said Major Davis. "Records were compromised somehow." He didn't say that spies from other branches and groups had apparently infiltrated the SGC, it was just heavily implied.

"The two Saotome have studied a form of ninjitsu that makes for some impressive stealth and attack capabilities," said General Howard. "Apparently not everyone can learn these techniques though, and Miss Tomoe has her own special talents."

"Ninja," scoffed Major Turner.

"Oh, sorry about that," said Colonel Maybourne, re-entering the room. "Update from the labs. We had that little tiff with ancient energy-sucking vampires, some difficulties with the MADDOX, a setback on another prototype, and a new armor material to test out."

"Mad Ox?" asked Major Turner.

"Operating code name for an armored battlesuit using the artificial muscles obtained from Refuge's Bolo and a naquadah powercell," explained Colonel Maybourne as he found his seat.

"What about the other designs?" asked General Howard.

"The SAMAS has run into some problems with the thrusters, the Glitter Boy is still in the design stages, but the reflex system looks feasible," said Colonel Maybourne.

"Reflex system?" asked Major Turner. "What kind of techno-babble is that?"

"Not techno-babble," said Maybourne's aide, standing and speaking for the first time. "The human body learns balance and reflexive actions throughout one's life. Some are hardwired in - snatching your hand back from a hot stove for example. Some reflexes are learned, such as dropping to one knee and firing a rifle when in partial cover on being fired upon. The Reflex System links the pilot to a mecha so that those existing reflexes and talents can be utilized without having to train extensively to learn new reflexes."

"Hence the 'giant robots'," added General Howard.

"Ohhhhhhhh," said a few of the attendees as that suddenly made sense.

Setsuna, still in her place, had wide eyes. The United States had GIANT ROBOTS in the planning stages?!

The older lieutenant leaned closer to her, showing her something on an unfamiliar laptop. "This is one of the prototype designs. Pretty sweet, isn't it?"

Setsuna twitched.

"Vulcan cannon, top running speed of 35mph, laser assisted targetting, grenade launcher," said the lieutenant. "Ah, it's a wonderful thing to be in R&D nowadays, in'nit?"

"What about this information about top level secrets being shared with foreign nations?" asked Major Turner.

Major Davis answered. "Both our allies in the British government and Japanese government have incursions of enemy forces within their territories, we've shared relevant details and they have apparently deduced or learned of more - but have not had a full sharing of intelligence."

"And this bothers you?" asked Major Turner, picking up something in Davis' tone.

"As I said, they are allies who are fighting common enemies within their own nations," said Major Davis. "I will follow orders and procedures, but yes - it does bother me that such allies may suffer casualties because we keep them 'out of the loop' on some details."

"There's only one Stargate on each planet," put in Maybourne's aide. "There may be a reason for that - that only one can be active at a time. This agrees with some details from Professor Tomoe's theories. In which case, access to the Stargate could become a problem as it is not intended for bulk transport or constant use - which may become issues if knowledge of the Stargate were shared with them."

Major Davis nodded. "Acknowledged. However there are enemies and dangers to our planet, some of which we know little about other than their ability to infiltrate civilian populations."

"The 'evil sailor suits'," sneered Major Turner.

Setsuna immediately decided she didn't like Major Turner. She'd met far too many individuals like him, puffed up self-important pseudo-intellectuals who couldn't do anything on their own other than criticize and put down others. A form of 'empowerment' by belittling others. They toadied to those in power, more often than not, and obstructed actual progress to give themselves the impression of importance.

Major Davis clicked another file and the overhead displayed streaky video. "This was obtained recently. The world it was discovered on was dead - the entire planetary population annihilated down to the last individual. There appears to be a schism, you'll notice that one of these suits kills another such suit. Thereafter the attackers have a clear advantage and eliminate armored suits fielded against them with very little problem. Rather worse is that they appear to have a transformation and mind control capability, not only destroying an individual but resurrecting a cariacture they can use to attack others."

General Howard cleared his throat. "Obviously, any of these that we discover utilizing these sorts of tactics is to be eliminated immediately. It hasn't been tested, but a high speed sniper bullet seems to be our best choice for dealing with such a threat."

'Lieutenant Susan Mayo' immediately decided that using the Garnet Orb to alter memories might not be a good idea. If it was ever detected -

"There are other enemies," said Major Davis. "Due to our unfortunate discovery by and of Ra, it is likely that other Goa'uld will attack us. To them, we are a source of host bodies and slaves. Some of the Jaffa who have come to our side tell of some System Lords who actually eat the bodies of their enemies."

"Hmph, next you'll be telling us of ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggity beasties," complained Major Turner.

"How about 'demons'?" asked Major Davis.

"Demons?" asked Major Turner.

"We've recently made contact with an alien race called the Asgard which has split into the 'Aesir' - who look like Roswell 'grays' and the 'Vanir' who apparently look human but exist in a partial energy state." Major Davis brought up pictures of Belldandy and Urd. The Urd picture winked and waved a hand, which surprised Major Davis as he'd thought that was a still picture. "Though they have some laws against directly intervening in our affairs, we've learned of forces labelled 'demons' as a counterpart to their 'gods' image. Not only do they have the Goa'uld as a common enemy with us, but there exists apparently another split within their race which is their philosophical antithesis. These 'demons' view humans and other sapients as animals to provide sustenance or bloodsport at their behalf."

The "still image" of Urd nodded, even if her attention seemed mainly concerned with her manicure.

* * *

"So, what you're telling us is that your allies also bring with them new enemies," Major Turner commented imperiously.

Major Davis gave him a level look. "They already knew about us, and have been involved with Earth events before."

"Then why do we not have any previous evidence of their appearances?"

"It is really quite simple. With their laws, they're not allowed to go out and make big messes, so what they have to do only falls under the concept of 'sowing chaos'. They don't so much as do it directly as push people into doing it themselves."

"Which is really convenient for your group."

"How so?"

Turner looked down his nose at the other major. "That sort of set up would allow you and the SGC to go around and claim that every bump in the night is the work of aliens. What sort of proof do you have that some of these even exist? The word of your 'aliens', and grainy video?"

"We have plenty of technology that has been gained through the use of the Stargate, and teams that go through the Gate all the time, Major," General Hammond replied, his voice tinged with a hard edge.

"That may be so, but who's to say that these threats can be that big? Aren't you blowing it all out of proportion, as there are plenty of reasons for what could destroy a world?"

"There are plenty of ways for a disaster, son, but there are not many ways to explain it when one has actual evidence of one particular path."

"Okay, even if we allow for the fantasy that young girls in short skirts could actually be a threat, that doesn't mean that we have to go to the sort of behavior that has been rushed to."

"Would you mind explaining that?"

"I have no problem with _that_. What I do find absurd is the idea that we have to be so open with the other nations," Major Turner said.

"And you'd do something different?" Davis asked.

"Absolutely. There might be a reason to include the British military...."

"Other than acting within their borders?"

"Explanations could be given for such actions. But the thing is that the Japanese don't even have a standing army, just a 'self defense force'. Why should we bring them in?"

"Perhaps because it makes for a big help later on," Setsuna said before she realize that she was going to speak. "There are plenty of reasons to work with them."

"Are there, _Lieutenant_?"

"Yes, actually. There is a movement amongst the Japanese to take on a more active role in their own defense and going out to do the sort of military assistance roles that the United States does a lot of. But not only would it make for better relations, it would also allow for assistance in technical matters, as the Japanese have a very innovative way for creating, adapting, and using all sorts of things, like in electronics, all of which could be used to help the technological that can be gained as things are now."

"Meaning, you'd have them help us fix our CD players."

"Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of advanced technology that could be adapted to different uses, like miniaturized parts that would possibly reduce the size of a field radio down to something that could eventually fit completely in the palm of one's hand. Though, if you wish to listen to some Wagner when out on a mission, I'm sure that someone would understand."

"And the Japanese have done a lot to help us in that regard," Major Davis put in.

"Besides, if nothing else, it spreads the responsibility. They do have to pay for a lot of the funding themselves, thus freeing up American money for other projects.

Some of those there nodded approvingly at that concept, as Major Turner ground his teeth.

Setsuna kept her expression inscrutable, but felt like smiling on the inside. That might not have been the smartest move, what with it bringing attention that she hadn't wanted onto herself, but it had just felt _so_ good to do it. She really didn't like Major Turner, and had felt the need to squash him down. A part of her even wanted to transform to her Senshi form right in front of him so that he could understand that the information was real. But as she'd already pushed it far enough for one day, she didn't want to give them even more to dither over.

Of course, this whole situation wasn't exactly what she'd expected. There was no way that this was going to be quite the same as what the timeline had been like originally, and so she was fairly stuck. However, she was _very_ reluctant to move against a group that was clearly going to help to protect the planet. Letting the Goa'uld invade this world didn't sound appealing at all, and the idea of one of them getting a Senshi as a host body was something that she didn't want to even think about.

She just hoped that the thoughtful look that Hammond and Davis were giving her wouldn't be causing her too much trouble in the future.

* * *

Sometimes, when they went out places, Haruka and Michiru were really on missions. They would sense some sort of threat at a location, and the easiest way to check it out was to simply visit it as themselves. This way, it would make things calm and quiet, so they could see if it was really where a monster was hiding, or if they were merely in a place with really bad atmosphere.

There were also times when going out for a cup of tea was really... going out for a cup of tea.

"I really have to say that I enjoy being able to sit outside like this," the blonde commented, leaning back in her chair.

Michiru dabbed at her mouth with her napkin and raised a brow. "Oh?"

"Yeah. Sharing time with you is really nice."

"The same goes for me."

"I know," Haruka responded, and then put on a mock roguish grin. "Besides, it also allows me to watch the people passing on the street."

"Looking for opponents?"

"Nah. Just seeing what all the other girls are wearing."

"Oh, you're just so naughty, aren't you?" the violinist softly admonished, her tone doing a lot to belie any sort of real harshness.

"Absolutely. After all, it is not like anything would show up right now...."

"This place looks really nice, doesn't it?" asked a young female voice off to their side.

"Ya got that right," agreed a male voice. "'Course, it'll be nice ta be able ta sit down ta eat with ya."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh. With all that's happened, quiet's nice. Sorta."

Both Michiru and Haruka turned to look at the pair, as what they were hearing was fairly sweet, and they wanted to see what was such an apparently caring couple. And at first glance, the pair of them looked exactly like they sounded, as the young girl and her boyfriend made for a cute looking pair.

However, the boy was familiar looking, with his pigtail and Chinese clothing.

The Senshi of Uranus and Neptune looked at each other for a long moment.

* * *

Minako Aino was fascinated, and those noticing what she was doing were mostly bemused.

After all, it wasn't like she could touch alien technology without it exploding or something.

So her puzzling her way through technical manuals was seen as more a curiosity than anything else.

Minako herself, as noted, was fascinated. A tendency for things to go boom was easily overlooked when one had a Dream. There was just such a Dream here - she had been on Refuge. She'd seen the footage of the last time Death Gliders had been used against the populace. She'd seen further footage of the ship used to hurt one of the Dark Generals long enough for Sailor Moon to finish him off.

Minako wanted one.

* * *

"Kinda nice to be back in Japan," said Ranma.

"Yes, it is," said Hotaru.

"Got kinda used to speaking English, and them Amerikajin soldiers ain't so bad once ya get to know 'em," said Ranma. "But, man, their food..."

"What's wrong with their food?" asked Hotaru.

"Such tiny portions," complained Ranma.

"Well, to you maybe," said Hotaru, smiling at that.

"You'd think people who go out and save the world from alien menaces would at least learn ya need proper amounts of food," said Ranma, sounding as if he was quoting his father.

"Shhh. The waitress is coming," warned Hotaru.

Though they hadn't been fighting monsters very long, Haruka and Michiru were sufficiently close that they could communicate volumes without speaking. Just a glance or two, while apparently pouring over their menus was sufficient to indicate that yes - both of them had heard the same thing.

Ranma and Hotaru made their orders and the waitress went away again.

"Man," complained Ranma when the woman was done. "And what's with the weapons training anyway? It ain't like those assault rifles are gonna do a darn thing. We need some serious firepower to take on bad guys that have got entire planets under their control."

"Well, we kind of are serious firepower," said Hotaru.

"Point," acknowledged Ranma. "What about transportation though? Think we could finagle a ride on one of those fighter-spaceships?"

"Maybe," said Hotaru. "Colonel O'Neill might take you up next time they're testing one."

"Those things go way fast," said Ranma. "That might be cool."

Michiru glanced over and saw the gleam in Haruka's eye. Naturally she knew her partner well enough to know exactly what was going on in the other's mind.

"Well, of course they go fast," said Hotaru, glad she could show off some of her knowledge. "They go in between planets so a speed of hundreds of thousands of miles per hour is necessary."

Michiru didn't even need to glance over at her partner to know that gleam in her eye had tripled.

"What about you, 'taru?" asked Ranma. "Ya gonna fly one?"

"Well, no, I hadn't planned on it," said Hotaru. "I'll just 'watch your six' as some of the soldiers would say."

"awww, ah, here comes the food!" said Ranma, eyes lighting up.

Haruka stood up and started making for the cashier. After they were away from the table, she glanced at Michiru. "You heard."

"American soldier named Colonel O'Neill, and what has to be a secret project if it involves Sailor Saturn," said Michiru. She might not have recognized the girl but the boy was not protected by any 'disguise' ability.

"Check with their 'Air Force' - that's the logical place to start," said Haruka. Hundreds of thousands of miles per hour, eh?

* * *

Setsuna listened to the goings on, but was also trying to determine who present knew who she was.

This "Turner" almost certainly did not. Others were also unlikely. If anyone present knew who she was, it was most likely a short list. General Hammond? Maybe.

"...female Jaffa..."

Setsuna almost felt her ear twitch in response to that muttered comment from the back.

"So what do YOU recommend we do, Major Davis?" sneered Major Turner.

"Use the facilities at the factory world Zeno," said Major Davis without hesitation. "When SG-X2 manages to comandeer the tel'tac, we provide four Land-Mates to our allies in Great Britain and another four to Japan. When those facilities can be re-engineered to fully functional shipyards, we split their output so that we're producing both fleet-worthy ships and fighter-spacecraft."

"Fighter-spacecraft?" asked Major Turner, looking as if he had taken a step into a pool and discovered the bottom was a lot deeper than expected.

"Yes!" pounced Colonel Maybourne, flipping open a briefcase. "I've got JUST the designs here!"

General Howard looked off into the distance and Setsuna grew alarmed. Four star generals weren't supposed to get misty-eyed and smile a mysterious little smile. "Would that happen to be the 'Excaliber' type fighters?"

"You've already got the design specs?" asked a slightly disappointed Maybourne.

General Howard muttered something. Setsuna wasn't sure, but it vaguely sounded like 'don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs' or something to that effect.

"We had to change some design features," said a now clearly disappointed Colonel Maybourne, "that way if they ever become public knowledge - Lucasfilm wouldn't be able to sue us for copyright infringement."

"Aliens. Killer cheerleaders from outer space. Demons. What next?" Major Turner rolled his eyes.

"The reforestation of the Sahara?" asked Major Davis. "Terraforming Mars and Venus? Graser weapons?"

"Pipe dreams," said Major Turner. "As for these enemies, if they even exist, why shouldn't we simply contact them and give them whatever they want so that they'll leave us alone?"

"Because in one case they want slaves and host bodies, in another they want to destroy all life on a given planet, and in the third case they apparently use evolution as the basis for their moral structure," stated Major Davis. "In the latter case, that would mean causing disasters and warfare and other upheavals in the human condition because it amuses them."

Setsuna glanced around. Who knew who she was? Who could have redirected her teleport to this place and provided a false identity? In one sense she was grateful, as these were the very sorts of answers to her questions about how things had gone wrong. In another she had entirely new questions with no clear answers to puzzle over.

"Geological teams sent to T272-349 have found some rare earths and isotopes that may be of use," continued Major Davis, going back to the narrative.

"That's the world with the almost cometary orbit, isn't it?" asked General Howard.

"Yes sir, we'd be unable to perform mining or exploration operations on that world except in the 'spring' or 'fall' portions of its 'year' - the atmosphere actually precipitates during the coldest portions." Major Davis clicked another file to the overhead, this one showing a ruined cityscape covered in ice.

* * *

Doctor Fraiser lowered the stethoscope from her ears. "Sounds good, no fluid in her lungs."

"She described it as more of a sharp stabbing pain," said Sam, walking away from the bed.

Janet followed her, lowering her voice. "I have no idea what to say or do. Her latest blood work shows a marked potassium deficiency, but I have no idea of what is causing it, or how it could have gotten so low, so quickly, but the effect can be arrhythmia."

Carter nodded. "Now you're sure she doesn't have the disease."

"Mm'hum, positive. These are not the symptoms of a bacterial infection," said Janet.

Carter looked thoughtful. "What about the new scanners?"

"We're still trying to figure out the readings we get, it checks out but still shows some kind of mechanism near her heart that isn't showing up otherwise," said Janet.

Samantha Carter nodded, heading back to where Cassy sat on the bed. "Alright, let's go back to our room."

"Thank you," said the subdued little girl.

"You're welcome," said Janet Fraiser, wondering if the technology of these medscanners might still need to be refined a bit more.

"Ahhh," said Cassy, bending over and clutching at her chest.

"What? What is it?" asked Carter, supporting the little girl. Very quickly she was supporting the girl's full weight as Cassy passed out.

* * *

"Okay, one hour recess for lunch," said General Howard.

"Lieutenant Mayo?"

Lieutenant Susan Mayo stiffened briefly as General Hammond addressed her. Did he know or not? "uhm, 'sir'?"

"You're a liason with the JSDF according to my notes," said General Hammond.

"Yes," said Lieutenant Mayo, thinking that sounded about right. So maybe General Hammond DIDN'T know? At a frown, she remembered her role. "I mean, yes SIR. Sorry about that, sir, it's just sort of... overwhelming."

General Hammond considered that and acknowledged the point. "Well, Lieutenant, while the fact finding and review goes on, there was something I was curious about."

"Oh? What would that be, sir?" asked the disguised Setsuna Meiou, now fairly sure that General Hammond didn't know.

General Hammond smiled, managing to look less commanding and more friendly. "Well, it's just that one of our Vanir allies, a Miss Urd, wanted you to attend and apparently accessed your files shortly after her arrival on our planet. I don't suppose the name means anything to you?"

"She did?" Setsuna asked, blinking even as her heart seemed to stop.

"Yes, she did. I'm pretty sure that she had a reason for it, but what that might be, I don't know."

"And you want to see if I know of any possible reasons."

"Exactly."

"None that I can think of," she told him, in total honesty. What the aliens might want wasn't exactly clear, as she had no idea of how much they might know about her. Just the fact that she was being checked out was a bit distressing though.

"I thought that would be the case. For all we know, she could have come across you somehow, and decided that it was important to have you around."

"Isn't that a bit... reckless?"

"Unfortunately, it can be," he told her with the sort of expression that one long used to such a situation would bear. "She's never been one for... calm, but no one can doubt her intentions and enthusiasm. If she sees a possibility for helping, she goes for it."

"Leaping in with both feet."

"Pretty much. But you haven't heard of her before?"

The disguised Setsuna shook her head. "Only as in the realms of mythology. If I remember my studies correctly, she was one of the three Norns...."

"There are only three?"

"Yes, three sisters. Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld, who were like the Fates of Greek myth."

"You know about that sort of thing?"

"History is a... hobby, you could say."

"Hmm... Well, I suppose that 'Verdandi' could be 'Belldandy'."

"'Belldandy'... sir?"

Hammond nodded. "Urd's sister, and the first one to come along."

"There two of them here then?"

"Three actually. Skuld's shown up as well. You didn't hear about this?"

"Actually.... I'm still processing all of it," 'Susan Mayo' admitted, and not without some truth to those words.

"That's perfectly understandable. After some of the things that I've seen...."

"I think that I know how you feel."

"Still, we do have some work to do. And what's going on is just a hint of it."

Sighing, Setsuna nodded, and knew that his words were not only going on the level that he'd meant them on. There were a lot of information that she needed, and a lot of choices that she was going to have to make. As it stood now, things were much different than what she remembered from the 'original' timeline, and this world had problems that the Senshi might just not be able to handle alone, as it wasn't an issue of just the power of their mana. Body snatching aliens were out there with armies of enslaved warriors, and that was just one of the issues to take into account.

This was not going to be something that could take a quick fix, and she was well aware of that.

"Excuse me," said General Hammond as he noticed an aide approaching.

Setsuna listened in, there was some problem at SGC Cheyenne. There was a teleconference room set up. She made the appropriate responses as the General took her leave, and considered what she had learned.

She had more intel now, and could tell that something major had occurred in the timestream and things had FUBARed. The question was - what to do about it?

* * *

The military knew something was up with the two. They'd seen the odd metal pen grasped in the hand of the bishonen, displayed clearly by a security camera's footage.

They suspected several things, and they were HOPING that these would turn out to be "good Senshi" but didn't exactly have a way of testing it.

Or did they?

"Hmmmm," said Haruka, on going through her mail.

"Something interesting?" asked Michiru, looking through the usual bills.

"I've been invited to a race," said Haruka, obviously distracted.

"You get those all the time," pointed out Michiru.

"Yes," admitted Haruka, "though this one is a little different. It involves supplied aircraft, and what they're attempting is to test-market this event for television."

"Sounds pedestrian, but potentially amusing," said Michiru. "What sort of aircraft?"

"One man jets," said Haruka, handing the photo over to Michiru.

"Naval base?" asked Michiru, seeing the background.

"If I want to attend, I have to call a phone number," said Haruka. "The deadline for calling back is in two days."

Michiru considered this in light of what they'd recently discovered. "A trap?"

"Maybe," said Haruka. "However, there are also some pilots listed that I know. They're good - and one of them MIGHT have recommended me."

"So perhaps it is a coincidence that the start and finish are on a military base," said Michiru. "Either that or they are investigating in the hopes of adding more Senshi to their forces."

"Hundreds of thousands of miles per hour," mused Haruka aloud.

"Hmmm?" asked Michiru.

"Oh nothing," covered Haruka. "Nothing in your mail?"

"Bills," said Michiru. "Plus two catalogs and a 'join AOL' disc."

"Junk, huh?" asked Haruka. "If it WAS a trap - I'd expect them to try and separate us or to send you an invite to play a concert."

Michiru nodded. "However, if it IS at a military base, perhaps it would be good to attend and make a few discreet inquiries."

* * *

Setsuna Meiou sat at the conference room, waiting for the proceedings to begin again and wondering what was causing General Hammond to be late.

General Howard sat down and looked around at the assembly. "It looks as if General Hammond is dealing with a crisis that occurred regarding another Goa'uld plot to deal with our little mudball and will be detained. Major Turner was in a little traffic accident coming out of the parking lot and will be... detained."

Absolutely nobody looked sorry about the latter, though there were some murmurs of regret about the former. In fact - it looked as if General Hammond was as popular as Major Turner was not, thought Setsuna to herself.

"Now, regarding the recent revelations about human ancestry," said General Howard. "Major Davis?"

"Sir?" Major Davis stood. "As some of you have heard about what we've discovered through the interrogations of Mister Jedite and our new Vanir friend - um. Yes, Lieutenant Mayo?"

Setsuna became aware that she was standing. "Uhm sorry. I thought I'd heard that name before..."

"Probably you read one of the reports on the Senshi and their battles in Tokyo," said Major Davis. "He was under the control of the Class IV Essence Fragment 'Beryl' and has since been freed and sworn loyalty to... Mamoru Chiba. uhm, yes, Lieutenant?"

Setsuna realized she was standing again. "Errr. Mamoru Chiba?"

"Recent recruit with the JSDF Special Forces Division, Branch Four," said Major Davis.

"Oh yeah, sorry," said Setsuna, twitching a little as she sat back down.

* * *

"It's a set up, it has to be. The Goa'uld tried to wipe out every last living person on that planet except Cassandra. Then they made us think that it was our fault, because they knew we wouldn't leave her there, they knew we would bring her back here. And they used their technology to put that thing inside of her."

"It's like they designed a way for us to help them create the device, after she came through the Stargate, so we wouldn't detect it until it was too late," Carter put in, looking rather frustrated.

"We gave her iron supplements." Fraiser's expression was one of helplessness. "We may have even turned the device on with a jolt of electricity when we resuscitated her."

"You're saying it going to destroy us," Hammond stated.

"Or at least this complex, the threat to the Goa'uld, the Stargate," Sam confirmed with a nod.

"They used that little girl like a Trojan horse," Daniel muttered, tossing his pen down onto the table in disgust.

The general appeared like he shared the sentiment. "How long do we have?"

"One hour and fifty-two minutes," Janet told him.

"You can predict it that closely?" "The cellular decay of the sample Dr. Warner took appears to be happening like clock work."

"What about our alien friends?"

"I'm going to go see them," Jackson commented. "Hopefully, they can give us some insight into this without breaking their laws."

"Do you think that they will?"

"Considering Urd's past behavior? She might just give us the sort of broad hints that might as well have page two bylines, and cute little puns for headlines."

"I hope that you succeed Doctor Jackson," Hammond told him. "Because if you can't, I'm going to have to send her back through the Stargate."

"No other option?"

"No other option. If that doesn't work, we will have no choice. We can't get that thing out of her without killing her, and with that being the case, I have to make a choice."

Carter gave him a sympathetic look. "Sir, I know this decision isn't easy for you."

"In fact the decision is quite easy," Hammond answered. "The consequence is what's difficult."

* * *

"As of right now, none of the checks for the technology of the Moon Kingdom or the Gate Builders have been found as of yet, but after all this time, and given the fact that the former was in a war, while the latter was known to hide a lot of what they made, that is understandable," Major Davis said. "However, we do have a good number of places to check here on Earth, and as soon as we get a reliable mode of interplanetary transportation, we hope to check the other worlds of the solar system as well. Already we've had seen signs of other planets that have shown Ancient ruins as well...."

"So, you hope that we might be able to find something from them by using the Gate as well," General Howard commented.

"Pretty much, sir. We know that there may be hints on Earth, but after so much time, and so many people...."

"I see. But what about these visits to the other planets in our own solar system. Are you planning on taking the Senshi along for the ride?"

"It's actually quite possible, sir. If we bring them along, they might be able to help us in handling any technology that we might find out there. And there is a theory that they may be connected to those worlds not only by name."

Setsuna Meiou frowned slightly, and wondered if she was going to be setting up for a tea party at Charon Castle.

* * *

Out of the corner of his eye, Daniel could see Skuld trying to not look like she was avoiding him, something that she wasn't doing too well in. But considering how they had met, that wasn't exactly behavior that he could disagree with. He could almost feel the ache her strike had caused, even though the actual pain had already faded away.

Still, he had more important things to do, and he kept his attention on the sister that he'd come to see.

"So you thought that little old me could help you with this?" Urd asked with an interested smile.

"If you could, it'd be a great help to us," he told her. "If you could find something that you could do, you might be stopping whatever the Goa'uld have going, and save a little girl's life in the process."

"Bah, as if I wouldn't help...."

"You'll help?"

"I'll certainly try. Now, let's see what the great Urd can do for you," the tanned Vanir said with a grin, ignoring the snort from the corner of the room.

"Just so that you know, we don't know exactly what it is, other than it has a lot of destructive potential."

"Then show me what you got."

"Sure thing. Here is the scan data that we have, and this is an image of what our equipment shows us...." Daniel said, lifting up each item as he named them... when the younger Norn gasped, ran up, and took the image from him.

"This is what's inside of her?!" Skuld demanded.

"Unfortunately yes. It looks like it's got potassium and the stuff that the Gate is built out of in it...."

"This could be bad."

"We do understand that."

"I mean, _really_ bad," she told him, and grabbed the scan data. "Those stupid snakes...."

"What?"

"This thing is definitely a bomb, and it's not just a timed thing. In fact, there are things out there that could make it go at any time."

"Should I warn the general? If this is that dangerous, they do have a plan in place...."

"Like what?"

"Sending her back to her homeworld...."

"Through the Gate?! Are you nuts?!"

"I take it that this is bad," Jackson stated, clearly knowing that it was an obvious thing.

"Of course it is! Don't you realize what the potential result of that could be?"

"I'm an archeologist, not an explosives expert."

"Well, this is your lucky day," Urd brightly put in. "The brat here is a genius with mechanical doodads, and blowing things up is something that she does a lot."

"Really?"

"Yup."

"Ha-ha, very funny," her sister muttered.

The human man looked over at the dark haired Norn. "But what can you tell us about this bomb?"

"First off? Don't take it to the Gate."

"There no way of getting around that?"

"Not unless you want to do something bad."

"How 'bad' are we talking about."

"The sort of 'bad' that has me wondering why you're not running out of here to talk to that general of yours."

For a moment, he gave her a look of great understanding... right before he nearly stumbled over his own feet on his way to the phone.

"Humans can be so strange and thick headed sometimes," Skuld sighed.

* * *

"This is what we understand now, by putting things together from our various sources," said Major Davis, clicking something on his computer that brought up a picture of the galaxy as viewed from a ninety degree angle up on the overhead projection.

Setsuna realized this was a computer model and just frowned a little. She had a feeling that she wouldn't like this, and suspected that there would be severe inaccuracies.

"Somewhere between two and five million years ago, a near-human species arose on Earth that developed a high civilization and spread out to the stars. That race is known as the Ancients and it was one of several great star-spanning races of that time. The Ancients mostly died off in a set of two major plagues, with some of the remnants fleeing to another galaxy and erasing signs of their presence in order to not unduly influence another set of bipeds developing at that time."

"That would be _homo sapiens_," explained General Howard.

"Right. Again a civilization began, partly with things that those Ancients missed and this civilization was based on the same sort of esper activity we've seen with the 'Senshi' in Japan," continued Major Davis.

"Cheerleaders who throw energy bolts," said a Colonel. "You'll forgive me if I'm a little skeptical of their ability to defend a planet?"

"If I may?" asked Maybourne's aide. "The reports indicate that the transformation of the Senshi is a 'make up' - with, ahem, cosmetic appearance enhancement."

"Huh?" asked another aide.

"Instant beauty parlor treatment," explained Maybourne's aide.

"AH," said several of those in attendence.

"Because of this, I have speculated that the Senshi are elite soldier units meant to act as a personal bodyguard, this is further indicated by their references of a royalty that they were to serve," said Maybourne's aide. "Further, their abilities in that appear to follow set patterns. After the meeting, you can access the raw data and what current theories are available. The access code is Fenrir06."

Setsuna decided that sounded quite ominous and wondered how she could get ahold of that particular report.

"The 'Senshi' and their 'Queen' appear to be refugees from a set of wars that occurred in this region," said Major Davis, highlighting a rough triangle in the galaxy in red. "Here's the Goa'uld occupied section in blue. Here's the Asgard sector in green. Worlds that the SGC have visited are represented by the blinking dots."

"The Asgard are seperated into three sections," said Maybourne's aide. "There are the Aesir - who are not bounded by the same rules as the Vanir but are reluctant to share much with us until we have earned their trust. There is the Vanir, who are bound by rules that apparently contain rather severe penalties for direct interference. One of which would be that their philosophical opposites would then be free to directly intervene against us."

"How bad could that be?" asked the officer who had been sharing his laptop's contents with Setsuna earlier.

"Bad," said Major Davis.

"Like the world-destroying Senshi, these others possess some form of disguise technology, mind-influencing capabilities, and some innate ability to access quantum technology of a sort we don't even have the groundwork for," said Maybourne's aide. "Further inference from myths and legends of various countries indicate that they would utilize existing weaknesses within our culture to infiltrate and manipulate, including replacing key individuals with lookalikes. If they were to become involved, we might find allied nations becoming hostile and public opinion demanding the disbanding of the military. Temptation requires a pleasant appearance to be tempting, and in this age of mass media..."

There were shudders through the room, as if hearing distant evil laughter.

"How do we know that they aren't already involved?" asked one of the officers that Setsuna didn't know.

"We're working on a means of identifying those who might appear human but differ significantly from what we understand of such," said Maybourne's aide. "NASA turned out to have a similar system already prototyped."

Setsuna tried not to sweat bullets. If these people actually had such a system and were deploying it, then her original plan of sneaking around in disguise might have had her identified as an 'evil Senshi.' She was fairly sure that her Senshi transformation would give her some protection from, for example, a knife or maybe a small gun. The kind of weapons and massed firepower these people could bring to bear was not something she was in any hurry to test. Most likely she'd have a single warning.

"What about when we do run into these demons or evil senshi, do we have a means of dealing with them?" asked General Howard. "From the videos from the factory world they have advantages in speed and manueverability, plus their disguise and teleportative abilities."

"We're fairly confident that a depleted uranium sniper bullet engraved with spirit wards of at least fifty-cal can at least slow them down," offered Maybourne's aide. "We have other possibilities on the drawing boards. Dispersed and with intensive code words and recognition so nobody knows what everyone is working on. Or where, for that matter."

Setsuna twitched.

"Paranoia would seem to have a certain validation in this instance," said General Howard. "Shapeshifting mindbending aliens who can destroy planets after eliminating their self-defense abilities?"

There was an uncomfortable silence after that.

"On the other hand, our little battle against the 'Beryl' entity went reasonably well," said General Howard.

"We-" began Major Davis.

_Doo-doot-do-do-do-doot-do-do-doo-_ began Major Davis cellphone.

"Ride of the Valkyries?" asked General Howard. "Is that the SGC Emergency Line?"

"Yes, sir, message says to check my e-mail," said a puzzled Major Davis, clicking a connection from phone to laptop. "Everyone knew I was in a meeting and so-"

Everyone noticed the startled look, then the slow smile. Major Davis clicked the file to show it on the screen.

"Hello Major Davis, this is Professor Tomoe! While you're listening to a bunch of old grumps and budget battlers, I thought some good news might cheer you up.

"As you know, there was supposedly an exchange of materials among the worlds inhabited by the caninoids of Refuge and the three other worlds, yet there wasn't anything other than those rail lines indicating Stargate use for transport.  
"Well, our UAVs found something a bit further up the coast on Zeno. It's sort of a... space going supertanker if you get the analogy. Crew quarters and life support got hit during the battles on this world, but give me some engineers and raw materials and we can likely get it spaceworthy in a month.

"It might be a problem for someone else, but with a genius like me? Bwahahahahaha!"

"He actually wrote diabolical laughter into his e-mail?" asked Setsuna.

"You've never met the Professor," said Major Davis. "He wears a labcoat embroidered with biohazard, nuclear, and scientific symbols and the legend 'Mad Scientist's Local Union'. A little manic laughter? Hardly worth noting."

"Well, it's a ship, so I think the Navy ought to come to the assistance of our friends in the SGC," put in an Admiral.

"It's a ground operation, so the Army Corps of Engineers really ought to be involved," suggested someone (no surprise) from the Army.

"The Air Force has plenty of fine scientists, and space is definitely along our lines of specialty," said someone (no surprise here either) from the Air Force.

Setsuna Meiou, guardian of the Gates, wondered what this meant as far as her own plans might be concerned.

"He terms it like a 'supertanker' and look at these pictures," said Major Davis. "Probably slow and unmanueverable. Meant to carry large amounts of cargo. In any sort of combat situation, it's just a big target."

"You can have the next one," a General told the Admiral.

"Will it have big guns?" asked the Admiral.

"We can always have them installed if it doesn't," the General assured the Admiral.

* * *

The music playing over the speakers was a tribal drum in a simple beat, with a Navajo flute weaving its mournful melody around it.

It wasn't music that would fit everyone's fancy, but the combination of primitive and subtle appealed to some.

It was kind of odd as far as her friends were concerned, but Ami found it one of the more interesting finds she'd run across while searching through a music store one day.

The databases she was able to access had grown enormously since she'd gotten the Mercury Computer and since she'd developed a few contacts.

Since the Mercury Computer didn't have CD or DVD drives, or much beyond scan capabilities, her new friends had gotten her a military-grade laptop computer that had plenty of bells and whistles. It would even, as the Mercury Computer would not, come in handy for those times when she wanted to study and edit homework.

Which was what she was doing now. It was all well and good to shop or meet with boyfriends or such, but she had to study!

Okay, some of it just didn't seem quite as important as it once had. There were alien parasites waiting to enslave humans. There were energy-draining monsters from the past seeking human prey. There were spaceships and ancient races that predated humanity and wormholes through space/time and artificial intelligences.

She still wanted to be a doctor, maybe a pediatrician like her mother. However she could easily see herself as a physician attached to the crew of a starship, as it hurtled through space to seek out strange new worlds! To seek out new life and new civilizations! To boldly go!

Maybe both. Do a tour as a doctor, pay back student loans, then settle down into a more normal practice?

All of which meant she needed to study hard! Study more! Study still more!

_thunk_ "ZZzzzzzzz."

And perhaps rest a bit.


	17. Chapter 17: Sitreps and Silence

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Chapter 17: Sitreps and Silence

* * *

Many girls might have not liked the idea of having government interference in their lives, but Makoto was finding an upside to it. The main benefit didn't have to directly with being helped with her Senshi duties though. What she really liked was the fact that she had so much in her life to enjoy, like the fact that she could get training in the Art, and also not have to worry about the security of her apartment.

But what she really liked were the people. Many of them could understand the need for combat, and didn't automatically equate the ability to fight anyone to be a willingness to do it. Plus, it allowed her to meet some American servicemen who apparently thought that a girl who was tall, attractive, a strong fighter, and great with housework were things to be interested in, though they did consider her to be a little young for her. Still, they had to have brothers, and she did wonder about making her own trip to America once she had the opportunity to do so.

Right now though, she was enjoying the company of the soldiers in Japan too much to be in a hurry to go anywhere.

Flipping an egg, she glanced around at the guys sitting at her table and smiled. "I hope that you both will like this."

"Oh, we're certain that we will, Miss Kino," firmly replied one of the soldiers.

"What he said," his partner agreed. "You're a great cook, and I know that you'll make someone a good wife one day."

"Do you think so?" Makoto asked, blushing heavily.

"I'm certain of that."

"I'm glad that you think so...." she murmured, and served them both up some home cooking.... just as the sound of a knock sounded from the front door. Opening it, she saw an officer standing there, and she guided him in as she headed back to her cooking. "Come on in. Relax."

"What's going on? Aren't these two supposed to be keeping an eye on you?" the officer asked.

"Well sir, Miss Kino offered to feed us, and since she didn't think that it would be an inconvenience for her...." one of the soldiers responded.

"She wanted you in here?"

Makoto gave the officer a blink. "But of course. Why wouldn't I?"

The officer sighed and wondered how he was going to write this one up for his superiors.

* * *

Setsuna frowned at the sight of admirals and generals proved that little boys didn't always totally grow up. That was something that she understood the workings of, but she still wasn't exactly feeling wonderful about it. Though she did hope that she would get some sort of information that would at least be the same as things 'originally' were.

"Our problem is that not everything can be foolproof," a colonel commented.

That got a reluctant nod from Major Davis. "Unfortunately, we are only human, and don't have all the information in the galaxy. So, we, or anyone else who might be involved, can have situations that will take us by surprise, or be misunderstood. Of course, we won't hide that, and the fact of the matter is that others outside the SGC have made mistakes."

"Like closing down the project," commented a lieutenant.

"Pretty much. When the initial program was shut down, the Gate itself was never sealed back up here on Earth. That allowed the forces of Apophis to come through and do their kidnappings."

"Which were thwarted through the efforts of Miss Tomoe and the younger Saotome."

"Yes, and with their assistance, a good deal of damage was dealt to Apophis' forces there, with refugees and technology being brought back. Afterwards, the refugees were relocated, and Apophis decided to come after them. How they were located is most likely due to a woman who apparently went with them with the aim of betraying the world that they were going to go to. That allowed Apophis to bring several ships to the world in question obviously in a desire to attack anyone there."

The only thing that Setsuna could do was to listen dully as the information sank in.

"Which failed," a major commented dryly. "Spectacularly."

"Quite true. He first sent an expeditionary force which was taken out by local forces during a visit by Senator Kinsey," Davis responded.

A smirk that crossed several faces there told Setsuna that the senator in question was not exactly highly thought of.

"When his ships came, they launched Death Gliders in what was likely thought to be heading towards a quick victory. However, ground forces, including Miss Tomoe, managed to stave them off. And all but one of his ships were destroyed by _this_," Davis said, bringing up an image of what looked like a huge mountain of a tank that looked like it could take on an entire armored brigade and merely brush off the debris of its opponents later.

Setsuna tried not to let her jaw impact the table in front of her.

"Now, it managed to get rid of those vessels, and only one managed to get away. In doing so, the Bolo became the planet's main line of defense, and is an invaluable source of data and technology for us. As for Apophis, we can only make assumptions as of right now, but it appears that he's gone back to Chulak to 'lick his wounds' as it were."

A General tapped his fingers on the table as he let himself look thoughtful. "Do we know what happened to him?"

"Not for certain, no. The only way to do so would be to mount a mission to Chulak, and that would be...."

"Only done as is ultimately necessary."

"Right."

"But there have been other 'Jaffa' encountered. And other races."

"There have. Of course, it hasn't always worked out perfectly...."

"Like with these 'Nox'?"

Major Davis nodded. "Yes, you see, the hope was to find a life form that was able to turn itself invisible to detection, and in the process it was discovered that Jaffa were there as well. And it turned out that the planet was inhabited. At first it seemed that these aliens were merely primitives, but then it turned out that had both the ability being sought, and others, including being able to raise the dead back to life without any sort of device."

Had she noticed that she was not the only one, Setsuna would have been glad that it wasn't going to bring attention to her, but she was too busy staring to pay attention to such things.

"We don't know how long after death would be too long for their powers to work, or if they aren't just restoring very weak life, but it does seem that they can restore a person who has died to life. Later, it was also discovered that those who had been encountered had merely decided to live in the forest, and they had a highly advanced civilization, one light years ahead of anything that we can think of, with the ability to hide floating cities if they want to. Unfortunately, circumstances resulted in the SG unit being sent back home."

"And we can't go and bother them," commented a female major.

"Not unless we have reason, or want to cause trouble. And I seriously doubt that we would want to do the latter. By what we were told by one of the Vanir, the Nox were a member of an alliance that included the Asgard and the Ancients. Luckily, their philosophy has led them to now be neutral pacifists who prefer to not cause trouble. Though they certainly can handle themselves if it comes to that, and do have what we would consider 'morals'."

At that moment, Setsuna decided that she would not be doing anything against the Nox at all, and hoped that they would not be coming her way any time soon.

"Fortunately, it does seem that you can learn," an admiral put in.

"We'd like to hope so, sir," Davis replied.

"The 'Hathor' incident?"

"That _is_ an example of what has previously gone wrong, and what has happened to fix it since. It seems that an archeological dig had discovered what they'd thought was merely a buried Egyptian sarcophagus, and what we now know is a Goa'uld device that can heal and sustain a person, even from death. We can't be totally sure, but we think that Hathor, the Goa'uld in it, killed the two men who'd found her. Others in the expedition then had her sarcophagus sent to Doctor Daniel Jackson, and she came to the SGC in search of the Stargate and her 'husband' Ra. In the beginning, it was thought that she was going to be merely a difficulty, but what was not known was that she had some sort of pheromone that worked only on men. Since the base was heavily staffed with males, she was able to take it over until a team from Refuge made up of Shion Uzuki, Minako Aino, Hotaru Tomoe, and KOS-MOS came in and dealt with the threat. All four of them were female, and were immune to Hathor's influence, which allowed them to take out the men without really hurting them, and killed Hathor."

Knowing that there had been an alien that dangerous on the Earth and that she hadn't known about it made Setsuna worry about everything _else_ she might have missed.

* * *

"I do not understand the purpose of this," Sosuke Sagara commented as he sat on the wooden floor.

Rei ground her teeth together and tried to not let her frustration move her from her position next to him at the sacred fire. "It's supposed to be about meditation, idiot!"

"But such a specific place has to have a reason for it."

"Of course it does! This is something that has been done for centuries in Japan, and is a very dignified activity!"

"Really?"

"Yes! And just so that you know, it also gives someone sitting here like us the opportunity to clear her mind and ease the spirit, possibly allowing for a connection deeper than one usually has with the universe. But in your case, I'd settle for it just making you not be so 'fight happy' all the time."

"Ah," he murmured. "I understand."

"You do?"

"It is a method in which to both adapt to the local culture so that enemy agents will not be alerted to anything out of the ordinary, and removing unneeded clutter from the focus of the soldier in question. A most useful allotment of time."

"You really are an idiot," she groaned.

* * *

Time: 250,000 BCE  
World: The Retreat  
The end began quietly, with hardly anyone noticing.

They had spread out to each world in their turn, travelling at first via arcship and suspended animation. The poets, the dreamers, the scientists, the artists - to the waterworld of The Retreat. The mechanics, the builders, the engineers, the technically oriented - to Zeno - the single habitable world in a system with moons and asteroid that had a staggering wealth in raw materials. Those who turned from intrusive technologies, they went to the garden world of Kielesh.

Worlds that were separated by a few parsecs, the garden world in its cluster of stars and the other two strung out further - all equidistant from their now barren homeworld. Survivors who had no intent on repeating the errors of the past.

They were wolfen, caninoids who were elite nanotechnologists. It was their art and science, to call forth finished shapes and mechanisms from materials almost as if by magic. They had had their enemy, whom they thought dead, but put some defenses into place just in case it were not.

They did not expect the new enemy to appear. On a balmy summer day on The Retreat, roughly 3,500 years after his ancestors had come to this world, a scientist named D'kren D'kren returning to his home found an unusually dressed humanoid. Thinking this was one of the Ancients, he called out a greeting and made a gesture of welcoming-inquiry.

He was quickly killed and resurrected into a parody of his former self, and the humanoid moved on. Having husbands and wives kill each other, their children, their friends and colleagues and allies - it was all a source of amusement. There was no battle involved, it was simple slaughter as the largely peaceful folk didn't understand the nature of the enemy facing them.

Though it worked both ways to some extent. This new enemy thought they'd left the world dead and barren, not realizing that some life was tough enough that it could survive until conditions allowed it to begin spreading again. Not realizing that the sleeping metal giant bound in its cave was in its own way alive.

On they went to the next world in the chain, not realizing that others would come to this world and return to their own - and that the next world would have some warning of the disaster.

Not that it did the world of Zeno that much good.

* * *

_Present:_  
Minako Aino was an interesting set of contradictions. She might have gotten some people worried if they had noted what she was doing.

She was thinking.

She was ignoring (well, mostly) tall and muscular foreign men working on planes nearby. It was odd how one could get used to a number of situations, but after seeing such things for a time she was mostly used to it. Why, she hardly ever walked into stationary objects or left little puddles of drool anymore!

Minako was tapping the manual with one finger and considering something.

She was remembering the little gun that Sailor Saturn had passed to her on a distant world. Something that had been modified by Saturn during a transformation. Her ribbon. Sailor Jupiter had some little scrunchie for her ponytail. And so on.

If you thought of something as an accessory that you kept, it became a part of your uniform, it transformed with you. Hotaru's father had told her to keep the gun and it had transformed as a result.

If anyone knew the track of her thoughts, and tracked her gaze to an F/A-18 being modified, they might have been very very worried.

* * *

Setsuna listened. She wasn't quite in shock. Not yet anyway.

"So how many Death Gliders do we have, anyway?" asked someone from the Navy.

"We can't use them, as is - there's a redundant set of systems to prevent their use by those designated 'shol'va' or traitors to the Goa'uld cause," said Major Davis. "At least the BOLO warned us of this, and has indicated which systems we can cut off of the existing Death Gliders to recycle into our own vehicles."

"The BOLO does not fall under any prior-existing non-interference agreements," said Maybourne's aide, "and may have its own agenda but that agenda fits under our own goals mostly."

"And that goal is?" asked General Howard. Setsuna thought it unlikely the General was ignorant of such a thing - but was most likely prodding so that it would be on the official record.

"The defeat of the forces that destroyed the civilization that created it," said Maybourne's aide. "Now considered almost certainly these 'evil Senshi'."

"I thought the footage from Zeno indicated that it WAS these alien Senshi," indicated the one who'd shared laptop information with Setsuna earlier.

"There is feeling within certain technnical sections that these alien Senshi might themselves be influenced from outside, particularly by that split off group of the Vanir," said Maybourne's aide.

Setsuna frowned. Just what she didn't want - more complications in an already labyrinthine situation.

"So what do we have?" asked the Naval officer who'd spoken earlier.

"The X-302A prototype is nearly ready," said Maybourne's aide. "We also are outfitting a few existing combat vehicles with systems upgrades."

"Which brings us to Operation: Weed Removal," said Major Davis.

"Excuse me? 'Weed'?" asked an Army representitive.

"'The Weed Of Crime Bears Bitter Fruit'," quoted Major Davis. "An assault fielding a variety of forces on the stronghold of the entity known as 'Beryl' recently provided some data that the technical groups are still trying to dissect."

"Congratulations are in order on that score," said General Howard. "Despite a lack of training together, there were minimal casualties and the objective was met."

"Yeah, one less ancient nasty lurking around waiting to suck the life out of people," said a Naval officer.

"Oh, Senator Kinsey was injured?" asked another.

"Strike that one from the record, please," said General Howard, trying not to smile at that.

Even having observed the battle, Setsuna listened - as they might speak of things she still did not know of.

* * *

"We are both very brave," said Cassandra.

"Yeah," said Samantha, thinking that in a very short time she was going to be blown up. Something within her screamed rage at the Goa'uld who would use an innocent child in such a manner.

Cassandra hesitated, knowing the earlier statement about their safety was likely one of the lies adults told children in order to "protect" those children. "I love you."

Carter hugged the little girl tighter. "I love you too."

There was dead silence then as they waited. And waited. And waited some more. Sam opened an eye cautiously.

Jack's voice came over the walkie-talkie. "Captain Carter? Can you hear me? Sam? Can you hear me?"

With a shaking hand, Sam raised the radio and wet her lips before speaking. "We're okay sir. Nothing happened. Cassandra's fine. I'm fine. It didn't happen. I - I just couldn't leave her."

"How did you know, Captain?" asked Jack.

"Vast psychic powers, sir," said Sam.

"Captain?" asked Jack, sounding mildly reproving. Or amused.

"Well, no not really," admitted Sam. "She went into the coma as we approached the Stargate. She got better the further away she was, and so I knew."

"You knew?" asked Jack, sounding fairly skeptical.

"You prefer 'vast psychic powers'?" asked Samantha.

"If you start wearing a cheerleader uniform, I will put in for a very long overdue and needed vacation," said Jack.

"Please sir, not even in jest," protested Samantha Carter.

* * *

The figure sitting on the throne had little that would suggest him as the ruler of an interstellar dominion. He did not look like some sort of statesman, but rather had long flowing hair, and an outfit that was more suited to some barbarian past.

But as he was Cronus, one of, if not _the_, most influential Goa'uld System Lords, he had the ability to look however he pleased.

"My Lord?" his First Prime said, bowing his head respectfully. "The connection has been established.

"Put them onto the screen," Cronus ordered.

"Yes, my Lord."

Cronus watched as several different images were shown on the screen before him. Each showed a throne room, with another Goa'uld sitting in them. All of them had similar looks of dislike, but were clearly holding back on any sort of shows of hatred, for the moment.

"You all know why we are talking," he said, turning his attention to the images of the System Lords.

"But of course," Morrigan said, lounging back so that she could look relaxed. "There is no reason to not know."

"Quite. Apparently, we have to discuss about these... Tau'ri," Yu responded, his hands steepled before him.

"You say that almost as if it's not worth talking about."

"My interests lie elsewhere, as you well know."

She nodded, shrugging so that her full bosom bounced slightly. "All too true. But do understand that I find these latest developments... interesting."

"So long as they are not directed at you," Svarog muttered, his eyes narrowing.

"So cold...."

"So foolish. You seem to enjoy flaunting about."

"True. I find that my host has provided me with a most interesting form. However, we are not here to talk about how I dress."

"No, we need to discuss the Tau'ri," Cronus commented. "They are gaining in power."

"And are causing... difficulties for others," Svarog added. "They have already killed Ra, and caused Apophis to lose his homeworld."

Yu sniffed and seemed to dismiss that out of hand. "They were lucky with the slaying of Ra. As for Apophis, it is his own fault that Ares managed to take his world."

"That might be so, but they do have a weapon capable of destroying motherships from the surface."

"Which they have not shown the willingness or ability to move from that world. They grow in power, but they also did not start out with much to begin with. So they are not quite as much trouble as they may be in the future."

"And all that we must do is be prepared. We know where they are, and are able to watch for what they may be doing," Cronus commented.

"So, you are not worried about them?" Morrigan asked him.

"Absolutely not. They are but ants, and they can be crushed like them. For the moment, they are not a direct threat, and I have more important affairs to attend to than to bother with them."

"Like taking Chulak for yourself? It would certainly not please Apophis."

"But it would please me."

"Then we are agreed. We take a watchful stance with these Tau'ri, and take them seriously, making certain to crush them when they show up?" Svarog asked.

"But of course. Why would we do anything else?"

"Just seeing if your position is like mine."

"On this, it is," Cronus replied, clearing saying that such an agreement would not always happen.

* * *

Standing in a run down clock tower, Marller looked over the city around her and sniffed. These humans were ever so easy to understand, what with their greed, egos, and lack of foresight. This world was all too simply to manipulate, and those who lived on it could be made to act against their own self interests, if they were properly... motivated.

She didn't think that there was much reason to even bother to cause more problems than there were already between them. But she did know that there were some unexpected turns in how things were going. Some of them were showing signs of growing strength, and she didn't mean in building up militaries against their neighbors. Rather, they were advancing technologically, and it was clear that this was not something that was happening simply on its own. They were obviously managing to collect things from the universe beyond their world, which meant that they were using the Stargate quite well.

However, her biggest concern was the fact that the fool Belldandy and her sisters were on this world. If nothing else, that would have brought her there, as she could sense their presence. Why they were there wasn't clear, but it did stand to reason that they were doing something... helpful. Certainly, they wouldn't be going around breaking their laws, but they would do what they could 'legally'.

What she would have to do would be to find out where they were, and what they were doing. Then she could decide what she would have to do, as she did ever so like to play with them. She might have been stuck with having to keep an eye on them, but no one said that she couldn't be creative with what she did with them.

Being a 'demon' on the planet Earth did have its possibilities, after all.

* * *

There was an odd thing going on. Well, several actually, but let's just take one at a time.

Minako Aino was considered a kid and a sort-of mascot by several people around the base. The USS Kitty Hawk Captain had been told a few things, and as a result - the young girl who was fascinated by what went into an aircraft carrier was being watched carefully but she was also given pretty much a pass as to what she could go looking over. There were some areas she'd be gently dissuaded from, but otherwise just treat her as a foreign high-ranking delegate. The various personnel treated her mainly as some cute kid, and one who spoke pretty good English - though it was a bit jarring to have that British accent when she was asking about this or that detail.

There were some questions the personnel were absolutely clueless regarding such as "would a Sidewinder Missile be able to get through al'kesh armor?"

When one of the pilots had to put in some flight time, the OK came down to take the "foreign dignitary" up in an F/A-18B and do some aerobatic manuevers.

Nobody involved had any idea how the Seeds Of Doom had just taken root.

* * *

Susan Mayo found a nice supply closet and closed the door behind her.

Sailor Pluto emerged from the Gates Of Time, deep in thought about what she had learned and quickly checking on the Senshi now that she knew a little more about the situation.

She'd just tune in on Usagi first.

* * *

"So, uhm," said a blushing Usagi.

"Well, I guess," said an uncomfortable Mamoru. "I suppose if we were a couple in a previous life, then -"

"Yes, I suppose," said Usagi, blushing so hard it almost set off the fire alarm.

"Movie?" asked Mamoru.

* * *

Setsuna winced as the relationship was off to a VERY different start. Even if it WAS chaperoned, by heavily armed guys in business suits.

She couldn't decide if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

Maybe Minako was doing something.

* * *

"Oh, you liked that?" said the pilot.

"Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh," said a bright-eyed Minako, her eyes partially glazed.

"Why not try taking the controls briefly," said the pilot, after all - this WAS a trainer.

"CAN I?!" asked Minako, grin going manic but her eyes clearing up.

* * *

Okay, thought Setsuna. THAT was WRONG. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG. Capital letters, boldface, double underlined.

Not something she wanted to see, contemplate, or even know about.

She was... waitaminute. No way.

* * *

"I thought this was your first time in a plane," said the pilot.

"I just did what you were doing," explained Minako.

"You did," admitted the pilot, deciding this girl wore her emotions on her sleeve. There was no way she was faking him. That meant... The rumors going around about these 'human evolution experiments'? Could it be? "Let's try this."

* * *

Sailor Pluto winced. She knew Minako was a walking disaster around even common household instruments. She was sitting in the trainer seat of some high-tech jet fighter (it wasn't like she was an aircraft otaku to be able to tell what kind) that looked hideously expensive.

Her earlier performance had to be a fluke, a coincidence, the universe pulling a bad joke.

* * *

Minako was Sailor Venus, who would be quick to tell you that she was the Senshi Of Love. She had just discovered a new love.

"Colonel Richtoffen? You're saying this about the CIVILIAN that tripped over cables on the flight deck?"

The pilot clicked his radio. "Yup. A natural. I've only had to make a few adjustments. Any chance we can get her some real training?"

The carrier was silent for a moment. "Maybe with the JSDF. You sure, Colonel?"

"Come on, I've been training flyboys for years, I can tell talent when I see it," said Richtoffen. "I'll sign a recommendation for them if it'll help."

"I'll so note it," said the voice over the radio, sounding amused.

Minako was back to doing basics, but she still had trouble figuring out the various displays. Still, she could _feel_ the way the air and plane interacted and the way this thrust and that move ended up producing this result.

"Come on, Miss Aino, we have to go back," said Colonel Richtoffen.

"Aye aye, roger wilco," chirped Minako. It felt like the plane wanted to go this way...

* * *

Setsuna watched as clumsily, with a few false starts and the experienced pilot talking her through various controls and what instrument meant what - Minako Aino the klutz piloted a multi-million-dollar state-of-the-art aircraft. Never mind that a TEENAGE GIRL wasn't even supposed to be IN such a place. (Of course, Setsuna had no way of knowing how much high speed communication had taken place before that OK had been going, but she wasn't omniscient.)

This was too strange. Fortunately she knew she could rely on Ami!

* * *

Ami tapped her pencil against her desk, looking over the stack of books again.

Finally she shoved the papers back, closed the laptop computer, and rummaged around in a drawer.

Out came a letter, and Ami seemed to regard it wistfully before folding it back up and placing it in the drawer again.

It didn't seem like much, just an offer for some very generous college and medical school loans. Said offer coming from a General Hammond of the United States Air Force and apparently guaranteed by connections he had. That was all, it wasn't even a free ticket - she'd be expected to pay it back eventually.

On the other hand, college and medical school and supplies WERE expensive. Sure, her mother was a doctor and they weren't exactly poor - but still.

Ami looked up at the heavens, wondering if there was a place up there for a somewhat nerdish girl like herself.

* * *

Sailor Pluto read over Ami's shoulder and knew exactly what that letter contained now.

Still, she knew Ami wouldn't do anything of the sort. Ami would be sensible and wouldn't do anything impulsive.

Oh, she might think about it - dream a few little dreams - but Ami wouldn't go star trekking across the universe.

No, if she had to worry about someone being impulsive, it would be-

A quick glance showed Usagi was out on her date with Mamoru, and if any menace showed up it would likely be shot several times by the various bodyguards.

* * *

If there was something that Sailor Pluto understood at that moment, it was that things were certainly changing a good deal from what she'd known. She'd already seen that Ami, Usagi, and Minako had some major differences going on in their lives, and that meant that there were no chances of the same future that she'd originally been certain would come about.

Yet, there were still other Senshi who were still to be checked up on.

* * *

Makoto was used to having fights go well for her, as she'd had the talent for them. To her, there was nothing wrong with being good in combat so long as it was used in the right ways. So, she'd never concerned herself with feeling guilty over being able to pound the living daylights out of some street punk.

However, she had to dodge a punch, feeling the breeze as she narrowly missed having it slam into her cheek. Turning as she bent down, she let her left foot slide quickly out to come up in a risking kick that she aimed at her opponent's face. But the leg was caught, which allowed the other fighter to hook a foot under her other leg and twist, sending the teenager to a painful fall to the floor. But she wasn't about to stop there, as she sent out a fist at her opponent's legs, which didn't connect, but it hadn't been meant to.

Instead, it allowed her to get free, and when that happened, she bounced back up to a standing position. That let her charge forward as her opponent got steady again, but wasn't ready for an attack. But that didn't stop the other person from standing firm and taking the hit.

The two of them stood there, locked breast to breast as they looked at each other's eyes. Neither one was ready to back down, and they knew it. This was going on between a pair of individuals who understood each other, and knew that this wasn't just a fight to dismiss. They were really standing hard, ready to keep on going at it for as long as necessary.

And Makoto was ready to really work at this, as she twisted her arm free to land a backhand across her opponent's jaw.

But instead of being angry, the other fighter stepped back put a hand to her jaw, and wiggled it a bit. "Nice hit."

"I was hoping so...." Makoto replied, panting a little.

"To tell the truth, I wasn't expecting someone your age to be able to do that."

"To tell the truth, I wasn't expecting to be able to do that myself."

"Really?" the woman asked, looking fairly surprised.

"I've always known that I'm a pretty good fighter, at least at the level that I've been, but you? You're tough."

"Yeah, but I've also got more experience, kiddo. Professional soldier, remember?"

"I do, Sergeant...."

"Just call me Melissa, okay?" Melissa Mao corrected her, waving a hand to dismiss the formality. "You've earned it."

"Wow... Thanks...."

"Don't mention it."

* * *

Pluto blinked as she saw Makoto sitting down and gulping down water from a bottle, just as the woman that she was sparring with was doing. One wouldn't seem to have thought that the two of them had been trying to beat each other up only a moment earlier, what with the way that they were lounging. In fact, Miss Mao looked like she was going to slump over against a wall like some sort of slacker.

Well, if nothing else, there was a benefit to having Makoto better able to fight.

Still, she thought that a small check in on a certain pair of Senshi that she knew weren't all that affected by the changes in the situation yet.

* * *

"So, what happened with the phone call?" Michiru asked as her partner came into the room.

Haruka frowned a little bit in thought. "It's all set. I've got an invitation for me, and one guest to attend."

"'A guest'?"

"That would be you, of course."

"Of course. What time would they be expecting us to arrive?"

"That's the odd thing. They're not going to let us just show up. Apparently, they're going to send a car for us," the blonde responded, giving a small shrug.

"'A car'?"

"Yes."

"And they are doing this because...."

"It's a military base."

"Now I'm lost," the violinist commented raising a brow. "Why would that be important?"

"Because of security issues. They want to be certain that it is us who arrive there, and that we are there on time. This way no one can trick their way onto the base, claiming to be us."

"Or so they say."

"True, but there is only one way to find out."

"Go and see for ourselves."

"Exactly," Haruka agreed with a nod of certainty.

* * *

On the one hand, Sailor Pluto was happy for the knowledge that Haruka and Michiru were taking things cautiously.

On the other hand, the gleam in the blonde's eye as she talked about going onto a military base was rather worrisome.

Shaking her head, she turned her attention to another part of Tokyo.

* * *

Rei smiled at the schoolgirl standing in front of her and handed over a fortune. "Here you go."

"Thanks!" the girl replied, and raced off to join her friends.

"Nice going with that one," drawled a voice off to the side.

Immediately, the miko's eyes narrowed. "Do you have to make comments on everything."

"I'm just making conversation with a beautiful young Japanese maiden."

"Aren't you supposed to be watching over me from the shadows, or something?"

"Actually, I'm supposed to be watching you without causing any sort of disruptions to 'normal' life."

"By pretending to be a joke of a foreign playboy?"

Kurtz Weber put his hands over his heart and put a sad expression onto his face. "You wound me, Miss Hino."

"I could only wish to. It's creepy having some strange guy hang around here."

"But at least no one thinks that I'm here to guard you. To them, I'm just the tourist from abroad who likes to flirt with pretty ladies."

"Great. And here I thought that I could never miss Sagara during his time off," she darkly muttered, eyeing a good luck arrow to see how sharp it was.

* * *

Sighing to herself, Pluto wondered if it was a good thing for Rei to be so much more... fiery, but she knew that skipping this was not going to be a simple thing. As it was, she was going to have to deal with a girl who seemed to have less problems with being protected by soldiers than she did with which soldiers were being tasked with watching over her.

All that she could do was hope that things would work out well enough.

* * *

"The 801st Tactical Training Squadron?" asked General Hammond.

"Yes, the Japanese government got involved at some level and they're very much focussed on having her spend some time with a JAPANESE military group for some training," said Major Davis.

"I see, how long?" asked General Hammond.

"Two weeks, though from the sound of it she'll be so exhausted by the end of that time that she'll be out for a couple of days at least thereafter," said Major Davis.

"Very well," said General Hammond, seeing no reason to refuse such a request. "As long as she understands what _nondisclosure_ means."

"It has been explained in detail to her," said Major Davis. "Look at it this way, Colonel O'Neil will be able to rest a little easier for the next couple of weeks."

The General smiled at that. "I'll be sure to let him know."

* * *

"Where's Tidus?" asked Auron.

"With Yuna," said Rikku, rolling her eyes as if the answer was obvious.

Auron smirked. "Jealous?"

"Pshaw, right," responded Rikku, scowling now.

"Wakka's with Lulu?" asked Auron.

"Yeah," said Rikku, making a course correction.

"Huh," said Auron, seeing that. Everyone was "celebrating" their acquiring of the tel'tak.

Okay, it was old and had seen some hard use. It had required repairs and some of the parts had come from two ships that had been scrapped. Still, they had it clear and square and it DID run.

There was another reason that Rikku was apparently irritated, besides that the only guy her age was already WITH someone and they were engaged in probable activity.

"You can pay off our bet later," said Auron, smirking some more.

* * *

Ranma sat in one seat, Hotaru in the next, and tried to stay awake. He was Hotaru's bodyguard after all.

Hotaru had fallen asleep five minutes into the flight. Now she rolled over and _flump_.

Ranma blinked as Hotaru had flopped right over and now lay draped across his lap. He'd gotten his hands out of the way, but they'd both been wearing seatbelts and jumping up and out of the way hadn't been possible.

Ranma tried to figure out what he COULD do, especially when she mumbled something and burrowed her head against his lap. Okay, this was seriously bad. If he moved her she'd wake up, and that probably wasn't a good idea.

Hotaru mumbled again, her hands moving as she adjusted her pillow, then moved her head to a more comfortable position. She made a sound of satisfaction and drifted off into a deeper sleep.

Ranma looked around in a panic, hoping to see some potential rescue. Nothing. This was a military transport and it wasn't as if a flight attendent was going to come along.

No, it looked as if he was on his own. However, it wasn't as if he could DO anything by himself at the moment.

Awkwardly he opened the book he had been reading, and tried to focus on that. He had a feeling it was going to be a LONG flight.

* * *

Apophis had started something when he'd raided Earth, a domino falling with unintended dividends.

Now he was trying to reclaim what he had lost and vengeance burned in his hearts against these mortal heretics. They would pay a thousand-fold for his losses.

The problem was that his lack of attention and shifting of forces had been taken advantage of by Ares. It had taken him considerable time and resources just to consolidate his holdings and rebuild forces.

Three ha'tak were nearly ready to go after the world of the Tau'ri, but he wanted to add two more before the actual assault. With five ha'tak, and assaulting them on their homeworld instead of this world with the mysterious Weapon, he felt he had an excellent chance of taking that world to replace Chulak.

With the resources of the human homeworld, he could then go on and eventually oust Ares from Chulak and reclaim what was rightfully his.

Apophis would rise again, more powerful than before. Anything else was unthinkable.

* * *

Setsuna Meiou tapped her fingers against the Gate, wondering what to make of the events that she knew were wrong. Time was passing in the inexorable way it had since the Big Bang's expansion had slowed to below lightspeed.

Two problems were currently working against her. One being simply range. The Time Gates were specific to this solar system as far as space was concerned, and didn't allow for time travel back and forth except for dropping or jumping from one loop to another on the coil.

So she could not verify what was going on out there. If alien forces were gathering to invade Earth, she wouldn't know about it until after they'd passed from the heliopause into the solar system proper. Which might be too late.

The sight of Hotaru laying across Ranma's lap, little smile in place and looking far more at peace and content than she would have expected - well that was enough to make her go looking for her chair.

What? You expected her to be standing in high heels for 10,000 years on a marble floor?

She had questions still, but she thought she had a basic handle on it. SOMETHING had changed and Professor Tomoe had met Genma. Professor Tomoe then went on to join the Stargate Program (deep space telemetry - yeah right) and pulled Ranma and Genma in with him.

Now it was all she could do to look in some of the more extant parts of the Solar System, hoping she didn't run into black monoliths or something.

* * *

"This will be your vehicle for the next two weeks, Miss Aino," said the young woman with a jerk of her thumb at the aircraft. "Word came down that you're to be immersed in a piloting program before you go off on some assignment."

"Yup," said Minako, managing a weird salute. "So what kind of plane is it?"

"You don't know?" asked the newly-appointed trainer. "Someone in the American military pulled strings to get you use of this one."

"Uh uh," said Minako. "Sorry, I'm not that knowledgeable about aircraft. It's cute, though."

"Hmmm," went Minako. "That's a lot of name for such a little darling."

"Pardon me?"

"Well, look at him. He looks like a tough little guy, what with the chubby look. He doesn't have all that long and sleek look that a lot of other planes would have."

"Maybe...."

"I am glad for two things though," the blonde commented.

"And they'd be...."

"The first is the fact that they don't seem to be too worried about me. I mean, it's really nice that they don't think that a few mistakes on the ground means that I can't fly."

"How nice...." the trainer trailed off, wondering what sort of person she'd been assigned to teach.

"And do you know what? The second thing is this gun. I can honestly say that it's a pretty cute."

"I do not believe that I've ever heard of someone calling the 30mm Avenger GAU-8/A seven barrel gatling gun 'cute' before."

Minako crossed her arms over her chest, closed her eyes, and nodded. "That's because they don't look at it in the right way."

"And you do?"

"I guess so. I mean, to me, seeing this stick out like a little nose is kind of sweet."

"You have to be kidding...." the trainer muttered under her breath.

"Of course I'm not. And I can't wait to get into the air!" the teenager declared... before nearly walking into the plane.

Shaking her head, the trainer hoped that her bosses knew what they were doing.

* * *

Nodoka Saotome was a happy camper at the moment. Her son was engaged to a cute girl, was really manly, and was doing 'Important Things'. It was all that a mother could want, or think of. She could rest easier knowing that her son was growing up to be the sort of man that she wanted him to become, and that her husband hadn't embarrassed the family with some antic or another. In fact, she was so pleased with the situation, she wanted to get working on the wedding right away.

But she understood that she couldn't have it happening immediately. It would take some time for everything to be done properly anyway, what with their ages. The major thing was that she understood the situation that they were in, and respected the work that they were trying to do to the point that she wasn't going to ask about it, and support them anyway.

Of course, that didn't mean that she couldn't do some small things, like get some presents, or some fabrics before hand. Things like these took time to work on, and if she had any questions, those nice people in the American Air Force would help her get her query sent to her husband, son, and future daughter-in-law.

As she sipped her tea, she looked around at her house and knew that there would be future generations just waiting to make it noisy again.

* * *

Ranma stiffened as he felt something moist, then he slowly looked downward.

Hotaru, mouth open, was drooling in her sleep. She shifted a little bit, then came to rest again.

He resisted the sudden temptation to stroke her hair or something, feeling that treating her like a little puppy or something would probably just make the already bad situation worse.

He just hoped this trip would be over soon.

* * *

Makoto watched the video and when it was over whistled.

"Remember, there were no special effects, no stop motion, no wires," said Melissa Mao. "There are a lot of people who are very interested in learning how Mister Saotome accomplished those little tricks."

"Put me on that list," said Makoto. "I saw some of that there in that invasion, but we were all in the middle of a fight and... wow."

"Understandable. He would not be very good in troop deployment," said Melissa. "On the other hand, he'd be much better in certain special operations scenarios."

"Who was that girl? I thought I recognized her from that fight too," asked Makoto.

"Kosmos," said Melissa, bringing up the footage of the sparring practice and pausing with both combatants blurred. "A combat android developed by one of the civilian scientists using alien technology."

Makoto nodded, but her attention was mainly on the boy. This was a whole new level of the Art that she herself practiced, and much more understandable than combat androids.

"The boy's father is opening a dojo, as I understand it," said Melissa. "It's not - what the heck is someone calling me for?"

Makoto watched as Melissa's expression changed to something flat as she listened to whatever was being said over the phone.

"Hey, she complained about Sagara and that's why he got leave while you moved Weber to that position," said Melissa, talking to whoever was on the phone, "she might be some VIP but she can't... Yes. Yes. I understand. Uh huh. That bad, huh? Look, I don't know about the technical stuff and I don't wanna know about the technical stuff. Okay, fine."

Judging from Melissa Mao's expression, she was not happy about having answered the phone. "Problems?" asked Makoto.

"Yeah, they're pulling Kurz Weber from guarding the shrine princess," said Melissa. "Instead they want ME to do it, as apparently this gal hates boys. Like I wanna get hit on by some spoiled little pyro #$*$#."

"Uhm," said Makoto, wincing. "I don't think she's quite like that."

"I figured her for one the minute I saw her," said Melissa, speaking about 'spoiled princess' types. "Yeah, well, if she pulls any of that $#% with ME, she's gonna be in over her head."

* * *

Okay, it was a "loaner" and wasn't really HERS. It was property of the United States Air Force, not Minako Aino.

She was reading up on the vehicle, the various "goodies" it contained, and in HER mind to some degree at least - it was HER plane.

Cost (USD): 9.8 million  
Crew: 1  
Length: 53ft 4in (16.26 m)  
Wingspan: 57ft 6in (17.53 m)  
Height: 14ft 8in (4.47 m)  
Wing Area: 506 sq ft (47.0 sq m)  
Empty Weight: 24,959 lb (11,321 kg)  
Powerplant: 2x General Electric TF34-GE-100A Turbofans 9065lbf (40.32kN) each  
Max Safe Speed: 381kt (706 km/h)  
Cruise Speed: 300kt, (555 km/h)  
Never Exceed Speed: 450kt, (834 km/h)

Some details, like powerplant, meant little to her. Other details, like climb rate, did mean something to her after she'd taken the controls of that jet back at the Kitty Hawk. This was slower and less nimble than the jet there had been, but it was still not exactly a slouch.

She read about how this particular plane had been damaged in some battle, poor thing, and then further damaged during transport. Which meant that she couldn't take HER plane out just yet and had to go with these training simulators. She complained about that - as she explained that she couldn't FEEL the simulator the way she could a plane.

When she DID take it out, she felt sure that she could be good friends. Her plane was such a cutie, after all.

* * *

Sailor Pluto considered. She had some information, but there were some questions she had yet to find an answer to and one picture which had caused her considerable consternation.

It was difficult to wrap her mind around the idea that the Senshi had allies. It was a little more of a stretch to try and accept that the military would be interested in playing back up to teenage girls. It was a HUGE stretch to try and accept that FOREIGN military would be trying to assist teenage girls in the defense of the human race from supernatural menaces.

Now she was confronted with the idea that ALIEN MOUNTAIN-SIZED TANKS were apparently counted among the allies of the Sailor Senshi.

She glanced over at an uncomfortable Ranma and an extremely comfortable Hotaru and studied the picture briefly. Hotaru looked not only comfortable, but as if she felt safe and warm and protected. That part she had no trouble with, in fact it was kind of pleasing on some level.

It absolutely positively SHOULD NOT BE, but it was kind of warm-and-fuzzy at the same time.

Minako going over to talk to the mechanics working on that plane, and apparently asking all sorts of pertinent questions, was a different sort of feeling altogether.

As the tank was in a different star system, she couldn't perceive it directly. Likewise she couldn't check on the various menaces she now knew were out there.

She decided. She'd just call up her new acquaintance, General Hammond, and make an appointment. Perhaps she could finagle an invitation to a certain planet.

* * *

It was an X-Wing. Sort of.

Some effort had been made to make it look like less of a direct knock off of the Star Wars films. For one thing, the main body was less blocky and was more smooth lines. There had been some debate about using radar-breaking fragmented surfaces, but the engineers had gone with smooth. The wings were longer and cantilevered so that they actually extended forward as well as to the sides. The guns were not mounted on the wingtips, but were underneath the cockpit.

"Here we go, the Ex-caliber prototype," said Colonel Maybourne as he walked past it in the hangar, "it's fast and manueverable - and about comparable in price to a Hornet or similar fighter aircraft. I know you're reluctant to work with us on this, and we don't see eye to eye on many subjects. Consider this test flight to be a sort of peace offering. You see, Jack - Jack? Jack? Where-"

An aide pointed. Maybourne looked towards the Ex-caliber.

Jack finished strapping in, then turned a befuddled look towards the Area 51 employees. "What? Aren't we ready yet?"

* * *

Marller stood atop the tower and smirked. So much wickedness in the world. Hate, fear, despair, greed, anger - mortal hearts were ruled by darkness.

A plane race was scheduled? Well, she could certainly throw a monkey wrench into this development. Nobody could stop her after all.

It wasn't as if they had any method of even FINDING her.

* * *

Time passed. Ranma arrived in Colorado with Hotaru, who felt absolutely wonderful after her nap. She wondered why Ranma looked as if he hadn't gotten any sleep.


	18. Chapter 18: Planes and Pasts

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Chapter 18: Planes and Pasts

* * *

The students were all aware of the strength that their sensei had, and were quite impressed by it. Each of them had seen his shows of power, and knew that he was quite able to fight off great numbers of Jaffa if he had to. This was a man who had the sort of strength that the wanted to have to protect their people. Learning from him wasn't always something that gave them a clear direction for what the path that they were following was, but they did have to admit that they did see improvements coming quickly in themselves.

However, this time they weren't lined up around the field to simply go through the same old exercises that they had been doing.

Genma smirked at the person standing on the other side of the impromptu training area. "So, boy, have you enjoyed your time off?"

"Ya talk too much," Ranma scoffed, giving off a derisive, yet amused, snort. "I ain't been just takin' it easy, Pop."

"But I haven't seen what your time away has done to your skills, boy."

"Well then, ya know there's only one way to see them."

"Any time that you're ready boy," the elder Saotome male murmured, sliding one foot out, and rasing his hands up to shoulder height.

His son pulled one foot behind the other, and slid one hand out to his side as the other came up before his face. "No time like right now."

"I was thinking the same thing."

The two of them stood there for a long moment, seeming like they were waiting for something to happen. Everything was still, and they were posed there... just as they sped forward, coming together faster than anyone could really see. Their fists flew at each other, almost as if they were lightning bolts taken physical form. But they both dodged the strikes, within a hair's breadth, and then sent a series of quick jabs back and forth between them.

Yet, it was clear that it hadn't been meant to be any sort of real contact, as they glided past each other and on to the ends of the 'ring'.

Almost as if they were in slow motion, they twirled around with small smirks on their faces, like they were enjoying what was going on. Then they shot back at each other in a series of passes where one or a dozen blows could be traded for all the watchers could see. The sound of flesh hitting flesh was the only indication of how many strikes were actually being done.

And then they jumped up, with Genma grabbing his son, and looking ready to shove him back to the ground. But Ranma slid out of his father's hold, slipped up on top of him, and used him as a platform to leap off of. That sent the elder Saotome flying towards the ground, but as the younger one landed gracefully onto the ground, his father seemed to spin in the air until he landed on his feet with the solid thud, which sounded almost like the ground was acknowledging his power.

"Looks like you haven't been too lazy, boy," Genma commented as he turned back to face his son.

Ranma glided out of his landing stance with a look of enjoyment in his eyes. "I've been too busy ta relax like ya have...."

The students watched with wide eyes as father and son grinned at each other and continued to fight, this time throwing casual insults at each other as they went.

* * *

"Ma'am?" the soldier guarding the hanger area commented, looking at the pair walking up to him. "Sir? This is a restricted area. You aren't supposed to be here."

Michiru raised her brows and looked to the person next to her. "'Sir'? I think that he meant you."

"I _know_ he did," Haruka grumbled.

"It _is_ an honest mistake."

"I know, but you don't have to sound so amused by it."

"Yes, but it is something that is fairly funny, when you think about it," the green haired girl murmured.

"Yeah, yeah...."

"Umm... Excuse me? Am I missing something?" the guard asked, looking between the pair.

"Trust me, you are."

"I am?"

"You are," the blonde told him, and pulled his attention to the id that was being held out to them.

"Name, Haruka Ten'ou. Race participant. Gender.... Female?!"

"_Now_ he gets it."

"I'm sorry, ma'am!"

"Then don't call me 'ma'am'," the racer groused. "I'm not a 'ma'am', and don't want to be one."

"You did have a problem with him calling you 'sir'," her partner reminded her.

"Actually, I don't really mind that all that much. It's just that I'm not a guy, and you were having too much fun with it."

"Oh, I'm sorry for that," the violinist replied, not sounding at all apologetic.

"Anyway, now that we've established that we're supposed to be here, maybe we can continue our tour around this place."

The guard frowned at that. "But... Miss, you really shouldn't be doing that."

"And why is that? Afraid that we might find out some secrets that could cause us trouble?"

"Well, there are certain things that have to be kept under lock and key naturally. But they already guard that sort of stuff. What you'd have to worry about is getting into things that might accidentally hurt you. This _is_ a military base, you know, and you're probably not trained for handling explosives, and other things that you might come across."

Haruka ran a hand through her hair as she nodded at his point. "Well, I wouldn't want to blow myself or Michiru up."

"You know, if you want a guide, I can call for someone to come along to give you a tour."

The two Senshi looked at each other with the question of what to do about his offer clear in their eyes.

* * *

"General Hammond here," said the General, rubbing his eyes as he answered the phone. Too many hours of reports with much too much fine print.

"Sorry to bother you, General, but this is Lieutenant Mayo. We met at the briefing in Washington?"

"Oh yes, I remember," said the General.

"Do you recall mentioning that if I were in the neighborhood, you might be interested in speaking with me?" asked the voice on the other end.

"Uhm," the General didn't, but he remembered the particularly nervous-looking Lieutenant and how at least one Vanir had apparently been interested in her. "No, but that sounds familiar. Why?"

"One of my assignments is taking me through your area in two days, would it be possible for me to see some of your deep space telemetry at that time?"

General Hammond checked his planner. Though there was always the chance of something unforeseen occurring, nothing major was SCHEDULED. "Well, if you make it early. The afternoon is a little more tight."

"I'm looking forward to it," said the Lieutenant.

"Good then," said the General, planning on having Urd and Lieutenant Mayo meet. Maybe that was one mystery he'd be able to remove from THAT list.

* * *

Haruka glanced at Michiru as some young girl went by, wearing a flightsuit. Though her hair seemed awfully long and not very regulation-looking to be a pilot.

What was more interesting, to the two, was that they were ignored and that the girl was muttering something. Almost like a mantra of some kind.

Haruka turned to Michiru and raised an eyebrow. "'Its an accessory'?"

Michiru shrugged, not understanding either. "Shall we follow?"

"She's the first thing we've seen that didn't look completely normal," acknowledged Haruka.

"What are the patches on the sleeve there?" asked Michiru quietly, walking along as if she belonged there.

"Usually that's rank, company, and similar insignia," said Haruka. "I think the 'airbats' are stunt flyers."

"So why's a stunt flyer... look what she's got in her hand," pointed out Michiru.

"A henshin pen?" asked Haruka, catching a glimpse of it glinting in the light from one of the lamps near the hangar.

"Curiouser and curiouser," quoted Michiru. "If the military is actually hiring Senshi?"

"I doubt she's old enough to join," dryly said Haruka. "Still, this does bear looking into."

* * *

"Well, Mister Browne?"

"We have the facilities, we have the manufactury, and Behemoth will be ready for testing within a year."

"We'll have to thank Miss Marller for her assistance then," said Browne.

"You don't trust her?" asked Weimer.

"Absolutely not," agreed Browne with a grin. "Trust is overrated. What she requires in payment is quite sufficient and can serve our own interests as well."

* * *

"What about those blades?" asked Genma, eyeing the accessories.

"They're made of some really tough stuff," said Ranma. "I can use 'em to block those staff blasts and stuff."

"Hmph. Surprised you didn't have a shield made," said Genma.

"Thought about it, didn't have enough of the stuff," said Ranma, shrugging.

The students were staring. Not only were the two still bouncing off walls to kick and punch at each other - they were having a normal conversation?

A young girl with purple eyes walked into the dojo grounds, looking around.

Genma noticed, noticed his son's brief inattention, then slammed him into a wall. "Pay attention BOY! You can't -"

_sching!_

"- stop in the middle of... Oh, Hotaru-chan. Can you point that somewhere else, please?"

Hotaru wondered when she had transformed to Sailor Saturn. When had she gotten between Ranma and his father? When had she pointed her glaive at Ranma's father? "Oh. Sorry."

* * *

Gossip. It was one of those things most human societies and quite a number of nonhuman societies had in common. In some human groupings, the lack of official real information meant that the gossip would spread even further.

Take groups that were usually kept fairly ignorant and superstition-filled, adding this factor in - and you began to accumulate gossip into another sort of beast altogether. Legend.

SG-1 had eliminated a few dozen squads of Jaffa by now, foiled the plans of two System Lords, and generally been a fly in the ointment. Among the Jaffa, their stories (spoken in hushed tones and out of hearing of the overseers) became slightly exaggerated.

Of the goddess Hotaru and her consort/Jaffa - even more was said. Especially when SG-X2 had been looking for their tel'tak and had seen fit to embellish a few stories. Also leaving out the parts of Bonaparte and the BOLO.

Bit by bit, the legends grew.

* * *

They watched. They watched as the girl uncovered a plane that had had a tarp over it.

They watched as the girl got into the plane.

"What's she trying to do? Go for a late night solo?" asked Michiru.

"She can't - the wheels are still blocked, they've been working on it so the fuel tanks are going to be empty," pointed out Haruka.

The two snuck closer. Haruka was planning on asking in a loud voice what the girl was doing, simply because the reaction would be amusing.

"It's an accessory, please let this work kami-sama, it's part of my gear as a Senshi, it's just part of the whole thing, no reason it wouldn't work. Right? Right! VENUS CRYSTAL POWER MAKE-UP!"

There was a bright flash that seemed to try spreading out from the cockpit.

* * *

If someone was aware of Minako Aino's past history with technology, they would have known that this girl was someone who had a tendency to cause odd situation with various equipment. She was someone who could accidentally change a Goa'uld device meant for healing and increasing longevity into a super power gender transformer. So, such a person would recognize that having her around some equipment could bring questionable results.

Haruka Ten'ou and Michiru Kaioh both didn't even know her name, so they were rather shocked by what they saw.

For one thing, almost the whole plane turned a bright orange color with the symbols for 'Venus' on the tail, wings and body. Then there was the fact that it shifted slightly, so that parts that had looked stubby were now more... cute. The shape of the engines changed a bit, and the cockpit seemed to be reinforced.

The girl, who now looked rather out of place in a military base wearing a sailor fuku, was practically bouncing up and down in her seat. It was clear that she was clapping with joy, and was someone who was obviously rather pleased with herself. Of course, if this was what she had set out for in the first place, then she had all the reason in the world to be pleased with herself.

For her part, Michiru just raised a brow at the sight. "I do have to wonder if this is a good thing or not."

"It could be," Haruka commented.

"Oh? And how can you figure that out so easily?"

"Simple. Think of all that we can do if we actually got that to work for us?"

"Then we could quickly get to...." the violinist began, but stopped as a knowing smile came onto her face. "Ahh...."

"What is it?"

"You want to have your own so that you could get a faster car or motorcycle out of the deal."

The short haired blonde blushed rather deeply at the comment.

* * *

Makoto had come along to the shrine in the hopes that she could keep things under control. It was clear that she was going to have to make sure that her fellow Senshi was not blasted by her sparring partner's temper. After all, it simply wouldn't do to have either one of them getting into trouble over this sort of situation.

Though, she was wondering about what she was going to be able to now that she was there.

"Now, you listen here, little miss sunshine," Melissa growled as she planted her hands on her hips and glared at the raven haired girl in front of her. "I'm not going to have your 'I am a princess' attitude directed in my direction. Since I've come to do a job, I'm going to do it, and it doesn't matter if you like it or not!"

"Getting rid of those two guys was not my fault!" Rei protested.

"Oh, really?! I seriously doubt that, and figure that you and I won't get at all!"

"Are you going to be slipping in to the girls' locker room to check for booby traps? Trailing after me so long that people think that you want to be my boyfriend? Or maybe you'll keep on attacking strangers when they act a bit different than expected."

"Well... no...." the marine told her.

"Then, are you going to try and hit on every pretty schoolgirl that you see? Perhaps you'll talk like a clumsy lech. Maybe you'll even hang around in plain sight."

"I'm not about to do that."

The shrine priestess gave her a level look. "Then we should get along fine."

"Then they did all that to you?"

"It was very hard to go shopping with Sosuke constantly causing problems, or to sell fortunes to schoolgirls with Weber trying to hit on them."

"Those idiots," Melissa groaned as she covered her face with one hand.

* * *

Tessa nodded to the technicians, smiling at what she was seeing. No, it was NOT that Sergeant Sagara was wearing his boxer shorts - having come rushing up when he heard the commotion from his cot in the next room. Well, not completely. Hmmm.

Sosuke abruptly realized that a superior officer was staring at his shorts. He began apologizing.

Tessa waved him off, blushing a bit. "Don't go changing on MY account, I'm just happy to see my guess about Miss Aino is proving out."

"Guess?" asked Sosuke, his gaze slowly going to the monitors. "What is THAT?"

"Something I'm going to have to look over more carefully in the morning," chirped Tessa, yanking her eyes away AGAIN from the Sergeant's disheveled appearance. She reached over and tapped a button on the console "How soon before we can give Miss Aino permission to test out Earth's newest defender?"

"We're trying to schedule airspace," said a voice on the speaker. "How about two days from now?"

Tessa nodded. "Sounds like a compromise, but it'll have to do I suppose."

Sosuke blinked and considered his equally young superior. "You expected something like this?"

"Oh yes," agreed the platinum haired American-born girl. "Have you noticed that their emotional states have a direct effect on their abilities?"

"Really?" asked Sosuke, the very idea seeming strange. After all, his own talents had no such modifier. A gun or explosive device was best operated calmly and precisely after all.

"Really," said Teletha, watching the screens showing the various views of the A-10 Venus Bomber. "She's also been going over every available detail about the A-10 she was assigned, including some of the classified details that were made available because of this possibility. She's not the sort to remember those details, consciously at least though. Then too, Miss Tsukino's abilities seem to shift depending on her perceived need."

"So she needed an orange attack jet?" asked Sosuke.

"Jealous?" asked Teletha "Tessa" Testarossa, glancing over at the boy coming to stand next to her. Her pale complexion once again betrayed a serious blush.

"A little," admitted Sosuke. "Being able to adapt and upgrade your equipment would constitute a serious advantage."

"Yes, well, we're starting work on two other little projects that I could use your help on," said Teletha, smiling at the thought of spending more time around Mister Sagara. "There's this Arm Slave project, for example..."

* * *

Age counted for something. She was twenty-five to Sagara and Weber's sixteen, and she was more experienced in a wide variety of situations and developments.

Melissa Mao had been born in New York City, part of the large Asian population there. She'd joined the United States Marines fairly young, and gotten a dishonorable discharge along the way. She'd then been hired on by another sort of agency, which hadn't cared so much about certain things.

It wasn't her sexual preferences that had gotten her out of the Marines. THOSE she kept pretty much private affairs. Her drinking, chain smoking, beating up of fellow soldiers, and a vindictive streak a mile wide - THOSE had all led to her discharge. Even if she hadn't actually meant for that incident to escalate as wildly as it had, sometimes one's judgement got a bit clouded by emotion and some really heavy liquor. As long as she confined her drinking to beer, which she had an enormous tolerance for at this point, and kept from crippling anyone - she was tolerated.

That didn't mean she couldn't irritate the heck out of someone though.

Rei went into her room, held her nose, and looked through watery eyes at the wreckage. At first she thought Sagara had returned and set off a bomb. The rank smell of beer and cigarettes was a thick cloud that hung in the confined space, and set her towards opening the window post haste.

"What happened here?" asked Rei, when she could determine the woman lounging in her room was her "bodyguard."

"Setting up perimeter sensors and monitoring equipment," said Melissa, knocking back the dregs of another beer. She then crushed the can against her forehead and idly tossed the crumpled metal onto a heap of similar crumples. "We got word from Stateside - someone broke into a storage area and copied a few files and stole some samples. Probably by magic - so we've got another menace running around now."

"LOOK AT MY ROOM!" exploded Rei.

"Yeah, wonder this stuff doesn't rot your brain," said Melissa, picking up a CD.

"PUT THAT DOWN!" demanded Rei, striding forward.

Naturally she tripped and fell up against the Sergeant Major. She became quite aware that the twenty-five year old had some serious muscle on her frame in the moments she clutched onto the woman.

"Hmph, so you do go that way," said Melissa, reaching out to trace the younger girl's jaw. "Be gentle with me."

"?!" reacted Rei, nearly leaping the length of her room. "Th-th-th-that's not..."

Melissa smiled, just having fun but there was no reason not to continue - was there? "So that's why you wanted a woman guard, eh? You should have said so earlier."

"WAHHHHHH!" reacted Rei, seeing Makoto standing just outside the door and STARING. "WAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Melissa snorted as the shrine girl went running off. "Easily flustered, huh? Say, Kino-san. Give me a hand cleaning up in here?"

"S-s-s-sure," stammered a flustered Makoto, vowing she would make certain everyone knew she liked GUYS! After all, all it would take was the rumor she was into girls and that would cut her chances with guys dramatically. Then she'd have to fend off gals like that Tsubasa Kurenai on a regular basis. NOT good.

* * *

Even days like that one came to an end eventually.

Sailor Pluto was satisfied, in that in a few days time she'd be able to clear up a few nagging questions and get a better picture as to what was going on.

Marller was satisfied. Urd and Belldandy had meddled, and while she wasn't sure that Belldandy had intended to do so - it was enough that she felt entirely justified in what SHE was accomplishing. A few files and samples copied from that interesting little place she'd heard about, and it wasn't like these hopeless primitives could even detect her.

Ami was satisfied, she'd gotten some good study time in.

Usagi was satisfied, she'd had a date with a handsome man and seemed to be hitting it off with him quite nicely.

Rei's anti-military prejudice was becoming reinforced.

Ranma was trying to insist he wasn't injured or anything.

Hotaru was trying to insist that Ranma eat his vegetables and if he wasn't going to take care of himself than someone else was going to have to do it!

Various Jaffa, soldiers, and others watched Hotaru and Ranma and either smirked or smiled.

Makoto got home, waved to a particularly cute Marine bodyguard who was now in the apartment across the hall and wondered how to advertise that she wasn't like Rei.

Minako wondered why that control there looked like the hilt of a sword. When she pulled on it, it slid out and she realized it WAS a sword. Shrugging, she put it back and suppressed a yawn. She was awfully tired and it looked like tomorrow was a big day. She was a little surprised though when she detransformed and the plane vanished.

Genma finished snapping a few photos, and handed the digital light-sensitive camera back to Corporal Halderman with a request that a print be sent to his wife.

Colonel Maybourne ordered a complete sweep and inventory, trying to figure out what the magical thief had taken.

Some things changed. Other things remained the same. The world continued on.

* * *

It was a world controlled by the Goa'uld, though its exact owner was subject to change among the System Lords. Like several worlds, it had become a world of treaty that left the System Lord in charge subject to change even if more than one had interests and developments on that world. Sometimes a place where one could meet was useful.

It was also - a world dying.

Ships tried to flee, engines roaring as they left the surface at high speeds - only to have a thin beam briefly link it to something on the ground. Then another ship would crash, spreading the flames and destruction further.

Buildings exploded, vehicles were destroyed, civilians slaughtered.

Finally the world itself died. Rents in the planetary crust spread and deepened until the point came when everything collapsed in on itself. What was left was yet another dead world, the signs of a thriving ecosystem and ancient culture buried.

Galaxia moved on with her entourage, looking forward to the next world.

* * *

There were a few things that Minako didn't like about flying. After all, there were all sorts of lessons that she needed to work on, and they couldn't be skimped on. If she really wanted to make the most out of the chance to fly fighter jets, she was going to have to put real work into paying attention to instructions on everything from actual flying techniques, signal information, air regulations, maintenance, and other such important matters pertaining to being able to fly. And then there was the medical tests, and the way that she had to keep a schedule, even to having to be able to get up early in the morning.

However, all that was worth it if she got to be able to fly. This was something that she could actually have some passion about, and she honestly wanted to work at it. Sure, it wasn't like she owned the planes, but she really did like the chance to use them. With the way that things had been going, it looked like she was going to keep on having that chance.

Still, knowing that she was going to be able to fly her own plane outclassed the idea of even having unlimited 'loaners'. It was hers to fly, and it was so wonderful that it actually was a special one. In fact, it actually managed to connect 'cute' and 'cool' into one airplane! She might have had to wait for a while to get permission to actually take it into the air, but the day had finally come when she could do so.

"Are you ready, Miss Aino?" Tessa asked as she looked up from the clipboard that she'd been examining.

The blonde Senshi turned and looked at the other girl from the cockpit of her plane. "Huh? Did you say something?"

"Never mind...."

* * *

The jet had set down with a minimum of fuss, as the pilots were used to such flights. Professional behavior was what was expected, and many of them were very experienced in what they did. Disruptive actions were not allowed, as that could cause a catastrophe that no one wanted to have happen, and that wasn't including what any outside forces could add to it. It was a simple and precise activity that was made to look easy, but actually took some practice.

That didn't mean that the soldiers manning the Air Force base didn't take a nice look of a pair of long legs as their bearer walked to the tarmac.

Of course, military uniforms were designed for being dignified outfits that gave a similar look to every soldier that would wear them. They weren't designed with attractiveness being a major factor, but there were some individuals who could not help but look good in them.

As a result, 'Susan Mayo' was finding herself getting appreciative glances, though none of them were anything more than that. Oddly enough, she found that she liked them, as they told her that the guys were clearly liking the way that she looked. Because of that, she knew that she didn't have to be the 'forever lonely Guardian of the Gate' if she didn't want to.

Mentally shaking off that line of thought, she focused on what was going on. She had arrived at this base just outside of Colorado Springs on her way to talk to General Hammond, not to get to see just how nice she looked in her uniform. It might be nice to be considered as someone who a guy might want to date, but she wasn't looking to get involved with someone when so much was on the line.

So, she pushed aside any feminine desires that she might have, and headed to the car that was waiting for her.

* * *

Venus A-10 Aerospace Bomber  
Crew: 1  
Length: 53ft 4in (16.26 m)  
Wingspan: 57ft 6in (17.53 m)  
Height: 14ft 8in (4.47 m)  
Wing Area: 506 sq ft (47.0 sq m)  
Empty Weight: 24,959 lb (11,321 kg)

Tessa checked the stats. "Okay, Venus-san. Start her up."

In the Venus Aerospace Bomber, Sailor Venus took a deep breath, and then grasped the handle of the sword. "Aerospace Bomber, Power UP!"

_FWUNG!_ came a metallic sound, rolling through the area. Lights gleamed like eyes from next to the cockpit.

Tessa spoke into a small recorder, though she was aware that this was also being double encoded and sent towards the cockpit of the A-10. "General specifications and appearance remain the same despite the color scheme. Armor plating appears to be a metallic ceramic composite, exact composition unknown. The forward area has an extra pair of spotlights just below the cockpit. Okay, Venus-san. You're cleared for launch. Runway is clear."

Gently the ship lifted, floating up six inches and beginning to drift to the left.

"Okay," said Tessa, adapting. "You don't need to use the runway if you don't want to. Make a note that she apparently has anti-grav capability."

"Noted," said a tech named Kensuke Aida, almost drooling as he watched.

"Please correct your drift, Venus-san," said Tessa. "You're about to hit one of the hangars."

The drifting plane seemed to flinch, then shot up a few feet until it cleared the hangar.

"Nicely done," acknowledged Tessa. "Do we have radar lock?"

"Seems to be difficult to use radar, however we do have the lockon from her transmitter and FOF ident," said Aida.

"Very well," said Tessa with a nod. "Now, Venus-san. You may begin. Let's see what kind of speed you can manage."

Clumsily at first, the vehicle shifted position - continuing to drift as if her attention was on something else. A glow began building in the engines.

"The two turbofans have been replaced with some other sort of engine," said Tessa. "It looks like-"

_KRAK!_ went the air into the space vacated by the Venus Aerospace Bomber, incidently drowning out the remainder of Tessa's assessment.

"Fast," said Aida.

"What kind of speed are we getting from her signal?" asked Tessa.

"With anti-grav capability, that makes her operational ceiling and climb rate pretty much along the line of a space shuttle more than an anti-tank aircraft," mumbled Aida. "There we go."

"Venus-san?" asked Tessa, mindful of those g forces. "Are you still conscious?"

"On a cloud of sound I drift in the night  
Any place it goes is right  
Goes far, flies near, to the stars away from here"

"She's singing?" asked Aida after a moment. "In English?"

"'Magic Carpet Ride' by a group named 'Steppenwolf'," supplied Tessa. "Clearly we need to schedule more time instructing her on radio protocol and operation."

"You don't know what we can see.  
Why don't you tell your dreams to me?  
Fantasy will set you free.  
Close your eyes boy,  
Look inside boy,  
Let the sound take you away."

"She has a nice voice," offered Aida after a few minutes.

"Current speed is 3,800 knots or 4380 mph," offered another tech.

"The wings should have ripped off at those speeds," pondered Tessa. "I really want the results of that materials analysis."

"She's leaving atmosphere," said Aida.

* * *

"So there you have it, Defense Minister Onigawara, sir."

"I see that the Sailor Senshi actually exist," said the elderly soldier. He paced back and forth behind his desk, ignoring the folders spread across the top now that he'd seen the evidence. "They have therefore been fighting menaces to our country on their own for some time, defending our nation."

"Yes sir," said the aide.

"Then there is just one question that I have," said the Defense Minister of Japan's Ground Forces.

"What's that sir?" asked the aide, fully anticipating it would involve HOW this had been going on for so long.

"If it's young girls defending the country, why isn't my grand-daughter doing it?"

* * *

As she was "Susan Mayo" at the moment, she expected certain formalities to be followed. Discipline, shown in the little rituals of the military, was to be allowed for.

The fact that a lot of the soldiers seemed to be of the female gender was a bit odd, but the majority were clearly male.

Most of the base she saw, as part of an arranged tour while the General handled some odd business he was called away to, was indistinguishable from other bases elsewhere.

All in all, nothing unremarkable until she was left to wait in a conference room while some emergency was taking place.

The computer practically beckoned for her to log in.

* * *

"So this address is to a dead world?" asked the General, watching the MALP's feed.

"Yes sir, Doctor Zelenka has reported that the world's life was extinguished all at once - time approximately one hundred years ago," said Harriman.

"Is it the same pattern?" asked General Hammond.

"Yes sir," said Harriman. "They're still investigating but it looks to be the same pattern as occurred on Zeno and Refuge."

"Then they're still out there," said the General, frowning at the screen. Actually, he was already planning on the report to send up the chain-of-command. "Sooner or later, they'll come here."

* * *

It was a day for shocks. Even after the briefing, the attitude among the new scientists and engineers was "yeah - right" more than anything else.

They were young and largely inexperienced, many of them sure that this was all an elaborate joke played on newbies. They'd signed up for the chance to work with "high end technology" and signed disclosure forms. The Stargate had been bizarre enough to put them into a sort of shock. An alien city - more so, and had gone on long enough for them to conclude this might not be a joke or bizarre dream. THIS on the other hand.

"Jinkies," said one of the techs.

The others all nodded.

The vessel had been described to the brass as a sort-of supertanker spaceship. Form followed function enough that the resemblance could be easily seen.

The ship was at an angle, having landed awkwardly, with a rent on one side clearly from the impact.

"Big," said another tech. Again all the others nodded.

It was big enough. It looked bigger, when you cleared through the mists and saw the ship from a distance of perhaps 500feet. Again the resemblance to a supertanker, for those who had seen one.

Sergeant Elaine D. Greenwood looked it over, but wasn't phased by the sight. After all, she'd just gotten back from the deployment against the Negaverse. Putting her assault rifle against thousand-year-old vampiric Monsters From Beyond had given her some different perspective.

Yeah, she was a soldier. Sure she was Army, but that was tradition in her family. She was considered bright and intelligent by those who knew her, and if she hadn't been in the shadow of someone like Captain Carter - she'd have stood out.

She let the rookies stare and gawk at the vehicle, then rattled off a few things she'd memorized about it. "It's roughly three times the size of the _Knock Nevis_ supertanker, over thirteen hundred meters long. Over two hundred meters wide, and that's over three thousand feet by six hundred feet for those of you having trouble with metric. It's about four stories tall, not counting the 'conning tower' area."

"I thought it was a mountain," said one of the new techs.

"Honey, it is a mountain," said another tech.

"Come on, ladies," said Sergeant Greenwood.

"Hey," protested the lone male in the group.

"-and guy," amended the Sergeant. "You'll have to fix up your quarters, keeping in mind that the ship's resting on an angle and the floors are tilted. As soon as you're done, follow the signs and assemble at the main hatch. We've got quite a lot of work ahead of us, so get MOVING!"

* * *

"She really seems to be enjoying herself," Aida said.

"Three loops, four rolls, and a power dive, all in the last fifteen minutes," Tessa commented as she took her tea from one of the support staff. "Thank you. And if that doesn't show her having fun, I don't know what else it could be."

"Yeah. Isn't it great?!"

She merely looked at him.

"Sorry. I'm just so excited...."

"At least we're getting a lot of data. But remember that this is still a test...."

A reluctant nod was his initial answer. "I know.... It's just great that we can have something other than a run of a mill test."

"Really."

"Yeah. And by the looks of it, she's really enjoying herself up there."

"I really don't need to look at the instruments to tell that she's having fun with this," she informed him.

"Oh? Why's that?"

Tessa simply sent the radio signal from the plane to the room's speakers.

"You know your love (your love keeps lifting me)  
Keep on lifting (love keeps lifting me)  
Higher (lifting me)  
Higher and higher (higher)!"

"See what I mean?" the slim young woman asked as she turned off the speakers.

"I think that I do...."

"I just wonder what that was...."

"Oh, I know," the support team officer commented, clasping her hands together with a bright smile. "That's 'Higher and Higher' by Jackie Wilson."

"And you know this... how?"

"Oh, she asked for a lot of music to listen to. And games. She likes flight simulators. Oh, and movies, like 'Top Gun', and 'Iron Eagle'!"

Both Tessa and Aida stared at her.

"Oh dear.... Did I say something wrong?"

* * *

Haruka had been looking over the work that she had been doing on her motorcycle, seeking any signs of something that she could improve on. However, she got an odd feeling that fell over her, and her eyes got a far away look.

"Is something the matter?" Michiru asked.

"For some reason, my bike doesn't feel quite as... adequate as it used to."

"I see...."

"I don't know why, but I just have this sense that I'm missing out on something out there...."

"Well, hopefully you'll get to it soon," the violinist murmured soothingly.

"I sure hope so...."

* * *

Everything was running as it usually did. The chevrons locked, the Stargate gave off the familiar 'whoosh', and the wormhole was established. That much was just like what had gone on during other missions that SG-1 had gone on.

However, most of the time, Jack O'Neill didn't have to deal with flakes of stuff falling into his mouth as he exited the gate.

"Okay, seems the travel agent wasn't quite up to speed," the CO of SG-1 muttered.

Carter looked around and simply stared at the sight of the area. "None of this was happening when we sent the probe through."

"And this is?" the archeologist of the team asked as he caught some of the flakes and rubbed them between his thumb and fingers.

"Ash," Teal'c said simply.

"Well then, Daniel? Dial it up, and get us out of here."

"No problem," Jackson agreed, and headed over to the DHD, only to stop as something caught his eye. "Wait a minute.... Something's out there.... It's a woman, and she's alive! And there's more of them, guys!"

The team fanned out, and Teal'c knelt next to a still form. "There is no life here."

"This one's had it," Sam sighed.

"It's just like Pompeii. Everyone died of suffocation before the lava started to flow. What are these things?" Daniel murmured to himself, saying the last as he looked at an item on one of the people's wrists.

"O'Neill!" Teal'c called out. "There are two more alive!"

"Looks like we're going to be putting the mints on the pillows again. Carter? How long before we're toast?" O'Neill asked.

She gave him a look that was a little helpless. "I don't know, Sir, I'm not a volcanologist. It could be days, it could be minutes."

Right as she turned back to the job at hand, the man that she'd about to reach to check grabbed her arm and held her there.

"Don't help... us...." he whispered, and collapsed.

All Carter could do at that moment was stare at him.

* * *

"Sorry again about having to leave you," General Hammond apologized as he walked along side his guest. "Something came up that I had to attend to.

Setsuna gave him a sympathetic smile. "I understand. It was your duty, so it isn't like you had much of a choice in the matter."

"I would think that you would, Lieutenant. Soldiers do understand that."

"Unlike some politicians."

"I refuse to admit to any observation that such is the case."

"Plausable deniability is always a good choice," she murmured in a lightly teasing tone. "But where are we going now?"

"Well, I thought that I'd lead you to see some of the things that we've been working on here. Before anything that's recovered by a SG team, it has to be checked out here."

"And so I'll get to see some little piece of that?"

"Just a small peek."

"Should be interesting."

"I should hope so," the general agreed as an airman opened the door. "I think that you'll see some very welcome things here.... Though I'm not sure why this room has an extra guest."

"Don't I fall under the 'welcome' idea?" Urd idly asked.

"Of course, but given the way that things went that time...."

"Oh, it's forgotten. Don't worry about it. I'm just here to see your new friend...."

"'New friend'?" Setsuna parroted.

"Why, yes, you."

"Maybe I should make some introductions. Lieutenant Susan Mayo, meet Urd of the Asgard," Hammond said.

"A 'lieutenant', hmmm?"

One of Setsuna's brows raised up. "And that means?"

"That you're different."

"How so?" the general asked.

"You know how you'd like to have more 'special' girls? Well, she's one of them."

"She is?"

"Didn't I say so? But besides that, there is something very important to do...."

"And that is?"

Urd waved one hand, as she looped the free arm around the shoulders of 'Susan Mayo'. "I've got to help her out. She seems to be so very uptight."

"I am not 'uptight'," Setsuna ground out.

"No? Then maybe it's just that you haven't had a man in your bed lately. But don't worry about that. I can help you so that when you get up in the morning, your bed will be covered in pretty boys."

"No thanks."

"Girls, then?"

"Listen. I can find my own dates, thank you very much."

"Oh, well. It was worth a try. Still, if you ever need help with that...."

General Hammond was rubbing his temple, and Setsuna stared at the alien woman in disbelief.

* * *

"General Hammond to the Gate Room," said an overhead speaker.

"Lieutenant, it looks as if I have to leave you for now, if you'll excuse me?" said the General, suspicion that Urd had PLANNED this meeting at this particular time blooming.

"Fine, fine," said Urd, waving off the General. "We can engage in some girl talk."

"Hmmm," said the General, that suspicion growing.

Urd smiled and watched the General leave, then took out a glowing gem from the cleavage of her dress. "Okay, we're clear as far as eavesdropping is concerned."

"So you're saying we can speak freely?" asked Susan Mayo.

"Oh yes," said Urd, finding a stool to sit on. "So, would you prefer to be called 'Lieutenant Mayo' or 'Pluto' or 'Setsuna'?"

"Yours is the little SD figure on the error message," said 'Susan' with narrowed eyes.

"The Gates are an Ancient artifact," said Urd, arching an eyebrow and crossing her legs. "Of course I know something of them. The past is sort of my specialty."

* * *

Defense Minister Onigawara looked it over. "Looks good. This was recovered where?"

"One of the leads from Parakalese Island, the Altar Of Tamachan," said the black business suited spy.

"I see, and it can't be duplicated by our technology, AND I have the only one," said the Defense Minister, eyes lit up and preparing to laugh triumphantly.

The spy didn't say anything to agree with that, though the bit about the technology was correct. After all, in this new spirit of exchange and cooperation between nations - they'd already sent two of the items to General Hammond. There were two more going to other Ministers within the Japanese Self Defense Force, and it had already been determined that the device was something like a multi-millenium-old instant-costume-change device that (as nearly as anyone involved could tell) was meant for the equivelant of a elementary school stage production.

The really dangerous stuff was going to be kept away from doting grandfathers and the like, thank you very much.

* * *

Genma sat like some Buddha on the stage, though the frown and narrowed eyes were not very Buddha-like.

In the practice yard, Ranma tried to focus and learn this new technique.

The Umisenken consisted of several distinct manuevers within his Art, which he was fairly practiced at by now. There was the Gai Ko Retsu Ga Dan (Armored Door Furious Fang Dismissal, which involved biting an attacking hand), Goshin Dai Ryuusei Fu (Self Protection Big Falling Star Cloth, disappearing with the use of a special cloth), Goshin Ryuusei Fu (Self Protection Falling Star Cloth, covering your opponent's head with a cloth), Ri Gyou Hon Shin (carp fish backflip, hold reversal with the cloth-tool binding the opponent), Haizan Toukai Tai (High Mountain Reverse Sea Plight, stamping one's feet into the opponent's back while performing the Ri Gyou Hon Shin), Shichuu Rakuchi Sei (Knocking Down Braces, double knee strike to force the opponent's legs into a splits), Yasha Tan Kai Hou (She-Demon Deep Sea Bundle, chi infusing the cloth in order to overstuff it with earth and then bury the opponent).

The Yamasenken was a little different. Mouko Kaimon Ha (Fierce Tiger Opening Gate Defeat, delivering a fierce kick while removing blocks) was easy enough. Likewise the Dokuja Tanketsu Shou (Poisonous Serpent Searching Hole Palm) was close to another couple of attacks - the only difficulty being the dim mak release of energy two inches further in along the target.

During the fight on the island, going after Beryl, he'd finally figured out the Kijin Raishu Dan (Fierce God Assault Shot) - the vaccuum blade technique. The trick was creating a pocket of chi with emptiness at the center. That left two more techniques derived from the Kijin Raishu Dan - the bigger Sai Dai Kyuu Kijin Raishu Dan and the Kijin Gun-Dai Ran Bu.

There was a couple more techniques he was having trouble with - the Kaichu Houju Satsu, the Kinshi Kinbakushou and its following move the Geimon Tatsu Sen Shi.

The problem was that some of the moves were so destructive that they'd had to rig up targets made of armor plating for some emplaced weapons.

Well, that and some of the people were predicting that Captain Carter's head was going to explode when she saw this.

* * *

She was Haruka Ten'ou. She was Sailor Uranus. She was a racer who was accomplished, winning most of the races she competed in and placing otherwise.

She had a lovely young woman as her lover, a good relationship, large home, decent bank account, a long line of accomplishments for her age.

So why, wondered Haruka, standing in the backyard and listening to the wind - why did she feel as if someone was "stealing her thunder" as it were?

* * *

"What to call you," mused Sailor Venus, bringing the vehicle back to the airbase.

There was a sword, through which she could feel power pulsing. Maybe a name using that? Except that she couldn't think of any names of magic swords that were applicable.

"The 'Venus A-10S Aerospace Bomber' sounds impressive," granted Sailor Venus, "but it's also kinda clumsy. Need something shorter."

Venus was landing the plane when it occurred to her. "I KNOW! 'Chan' for cute. 'P' for plane. P-chan!"

Tessa, listening on the radio, merely shook her head. Sometimes that girl could be scary.

* * *

The Gateroom was a scene of orderly chaos when General Hammond came into it. Light from the active Stargate lit the area almost like those there were staring up through water. On the ramp, several injured people were being brought down, with medical staff hovering around them. Others were being brought through the Gate, with the normal quiet being demolished by the mix of voices, all calling out as they rushed to do their jobs as professionally as possible.

As there should have been only four people coming out of the Gate, this was a bit out of the ordinary, but he could hope to get some answers.

"All right, let's go," Jack O'Neill told his team as the Gate closed, and their presence was getting in the way.

One medic turned and looked at the Colonel. "Are you alright, sir?"

"I'm fine."

"Good," Hammond said, and gave O'Neill a questioning look. "Then maybe you could tell me what's happened."

"We discovered that we should fire our travel agent, sir. Instead of just being able to walk, we got to enjoy some volcanic activity."

"And these people are?"

Carter's expression turned apologetic. "We don't know ourselves, sir. They were the survivors of a bigger group that was dead, or dying out there." Her words were cut off by a hacking cough that she couldn't stop. "That air was highly toxic, sir."

"And hot," Daniel put in, rubbing his head.

"I see. Well, considering those facts, I think that it'd be best to get Doctor Frasier to check you out. We'll debrief once you all are ready."

"No problem, sir," Jack replied, and started to lead his team out of the Gateroom. "There is one thing that I did get out of this though."

"What's that, sir?" Sam asked him.

"If I ever go to Hawaii, I'm sticking to the beaches. I'm not doing the 'gas and heat' thing again."

"Me too, sir. Me too."

* * *

"You seem to know a lot about this," Setsuna asked the individual in front of her.

Urd gave a small shrug. "My people have been around for a long time, and have associated with the Ancients. We know a trick or two."

"Then why not just come to see me face to face?"

"No reason to. Interfering only goes so far, especially when I'm not sure why you're doing it. Of course, it'd be okay if you're just doing a little 'hidden viewing' for your own pleasure."

"I am not a pervert!" the human woman barked, and then visibly calmed herself. "As it stands, I've had to get information to know just exactly how things stand at this moment."

"To keep up on everyone?"

"To be aware of how the timeline shifted."

"Pardon me?" the Asgard woman murmured in surprise.

"You know how the Time Gate can allow a person to travel through time, and is a bit out of the time line?"

"Yes, I do."

The Senshi let her lips flatten out, but didn't allow herself to show any other emotions. "Well, I was at the Gate when something caused the timeline to change. There was a shift in the course of events, which immediately changed a good number of lives, with a very good likelihood that the number of those affected would grow very quickly. So, I needed to get everything back on track. But instead of working, everything wound up like... this."

"Ahh.... Then that was your mistake."

"Excuse me?"

"Think about this. The Ancients had the ability to create time travel devices, but they didn't use it. Do you know why? Exactly this reason."

"Hmmm?"

"Making a change in the past doesn't work because it's too random. Sure, you can shift things about, but you can't be sure that it'll go just how you want it too. If you make one small mistake, it could change things even more. Say you manage to change something to make the world how you like it. There's nothing to say that it won't change in a different way."

"Which means...."

"Take the example of love, for instance," Urd told her with a smile. "You have a guy who needs to get with a particular girl, who happens to be his childhood best friend. But when he's little, something makes a butterfly float by, distracting him from his path, so that he winds up never meeting her. You try to fix it by making her stand where the butterfly will lead him, but you disturb a bee, which stings him, and makes him have to go to a water fountain to run over the stung part of his arm. Once there, he meets an entirely different girl, who becomes his childhood sweetheart."

"So, for every factor that I can control, there might be a dozen others that I can't."

"Pretty much. Now, the whole 'childhood love' thing is only part of romance, which I'm interested in, but the idea holds. The Ancients couldn't make it work. So what would make you think that someone like you could?"

Setsuna scowled at the alien woman. "'Like me'?"

"You're not an Ancient, and so you don't have all the knowledge and technology that they did. It's not like you could quite manage to match their power level in those regards. It's one thing to blow stuff up. But even they couldn't manage to make time travel a sure thing."

"And this is supposed to help me get to see if I should get things to their original timeline?"

"No, this is saying that I'm not sure why you're so uptight about restoring it," Urd retorted.

"That was the way that things were supposed to be, and I do have to wonder if it wouldn't be best to give everyone their lives back, especially considering how things could go."

"What do you mean?"

"There are dangers and disasters that could still be coming this way, and the only certain way that I have to deal with them is to have the other Senshi ready."

"Can't you adapt?"

"I could...."

Urd gave the human an oddly serious look. "Then do it."

"Why?"

"Because if you allow yourself to get too caught up in one direction, you could mess yourself up pretty bad. As it stands, half my species tinkered with their bodies until they were left facing an approaching limit to their cloning technologies. You decide to change the timeline again, and there's no guarantee that you could fix it."

"You seem to know a lot."

"Time is part of my business," the Asgard woman told her.

* * *

_N33-241_  
The team was not SG-1, but SG-7. Scientists who were ready for anything.

"We've tested the flora, the fauna, and we've found - nothing," said one scientist.

"Urd described this as 'a tropical paradise' - as opposed to 'N32-041' which was a 'romantic getaway'," said the senior scientist.

"So there's a serpent, maybe," said one of the newbies, picking up on the 'paradise' angle.

The senior scientist nodded, then hit the Stargate controls to dial into the Cheyenne Mountain complex. Nothing happened. "They must have their gate open. I wonder what's going on."

"You can always record the report into the MALP for burst transmission when it's available," stated the newbie.

"Good point," said the senior, clicking the appropriate controls. "Four hour report - N33-241. The world so far proves to parallel Tahiti or some other tropical island chain. Temperature, humidity, flora - all fit within that generality. The only odd things we've found so far is the lack of insects. You'd expect them to be plentiful here, but there seems to be no native insect life. There's some sort of native sloth, and a fungus that smells pretty nasty, but for the most part it looks more like the Caribbean. Will continue to search. SG-7 Out."

* * *

Urd glanced up. "Ah. Our ride's here."

"Our what?" asked Setsuna, not missing that she'd been included.

"Thor's here," said Urd. "I asked him for a ride, that way we don't have to bother the boys guarding their Stargate."

"Where are you planning on taking me?" asked Setsuna, not particularly trusting this 'goddess'.

"You wanted to see what's really going on, right?" asked Urd. "Sometimes you have to go out and find answers, is this not so?"

* * *

"What happened to Sergeant Sagara?" asked Rei. She'd begun to see Sagara a little more favorably after Weber and her new guardian.

"He's off with a special forces group, developing new technologies," said Melissa, not looking up from where she was cleaning a gun.

"HIM?" asked Rei, unable to reconcile some nerdish image of technicians with the guy who thought the best way to check a suspicious package was to blow it up.

"What do you know about Sagara?" asked Melissa Mao, glancing at her "roomie" with a smirk before returning her attention to her pistol.

"He's a gun nut, dangerous, and completely clueless," said Rei.

"Uh huh," said Melissa. "Yet if you dropped him down without supplies in just about any warzone on Earth - he could equip himself and survive long enough for pickup. Heck, he might be able to fight his way back out. He didn't exactly have a normal childhood."

"Hmmmph," grumbled Rei. "Why would I care?"

"He was the first one assigned to you for that very factor," said Melissa, her hands still busy. She didn't bother pointing out that Rei had been the one to broach the subject. "When it comes to survival - he's among the best there is. It's what he's been doing since he was old enough to walk. He doesn't know much about civilian life though, took him months to get past the point where he could sleep without setting up boobie traps to guard approaches to his quarters. That's why Weber was chosen to replace him - a sniper but one with the appropriate civilian skills."

"What was up with THAT guy?" asked Rei, practically growling.

"Hormonally addled idiot," said Melissa, putting together her pistol. "He's spent time in Okinawa and Germany and a few other places though. Done a few undercover ops, expert sniper, pretty good pilot. Providing he can get over that sleazeball attitude of his."

"Don't you people ever hire NORMAL people?" asked Rei.

Melissa smirked. "Kid, normal people wouldn't do this kind of work or last very long doing it. Besides, what does a girl who talks about 'punishing' people 'in high heels' and being a 'sailorsuited warrior of love and justice' know about normal?"

Rei scowled and reached for a manga. There didn't seem to be much she could say about that.

* * *

Ranma sat back, exhausted.

Genma nodded from where he was. Ranma was good but could be better. He was pleased on many levels with Ranma's performance, yet the boy wasn't quite where he needed to be.

The sections of tank armor had been scored and scratched by several of Ranma's attacks.

Genma considered the damage, inspecting more closely. The Kijin Raishu Dan was effective against a number of targets, cutting into a fair number of surfaces without problem. It was like hitting them with a sharp axe, and caused a very localized damage. It was a ranged attack, and therefore something that Ranma had to learn to be able to deal with flying enemies.

The first problem was that the further away the target, the more energy would be lost just getting the attack to that target. Second was that a single focussed Kijin Raishu Dan did more damage than a blitz of them, and even then it wasn't that effective against hardened armor such as these targets. The third problem was that Ranma just wasn't up to doing the technique for a protracted period of time. He might eventually overcome this on his own though.

Genma noticed his boy had gone from exhausted to sleeping. Frowning slightly, he drew one of the blades from a sheath.

They were very sharp and very tough, Genma observed. They cut through wood easily enough, but he had to press hard against them and enhance his strength to cut into the armor of the targets.

Maybe if Ranma tried to use the Kijin Raishu Dan with these weapons, he could focus the attack better?

Possibly, thought Genma, still - the Kijin Raishu Dan was not intended for getting through armor and likely wouldn't be that effective against ships such as had attacked Refuge that day not so long ago.

Genma pondered the problem. Perhaps it wasn't possible to overcome the range problems, so instead a defense against their attacks would be better?

* * *

The medical facilities of Stargate Command were top of the line for what they were, and they had to be. Not only were they going to need to deal with all the sickness, accidents, and battle injuries that a soldier would have to face in the course of his or her tour of duty, but it had to be ready for problems coming from alien worlds, some of which could not be predicted at all. It was a place where life and death struggles could take place, but without any physical violence.

That wasn't to say that it wasn't able to be chaotic. As General Hammond and SG-1 came into the infirmary, they came into a place that was teeming with activity. Medical staff raced about, trying to get their particular task done while assisting the others around them. Voices were raised as individuals called out for 'this' piece of equipment, or 'that' doctor's help.

As they had been around such hectic surroundings before, they merely gave it a glance over as the airwoman guiding them pointed out who they were there to talk to. They nodded their acknowledgements back at her, and she headed off, leaving them to head over to the prone man, who apparently had not been having a particularly good day.

Not that he had even a bit of gratitude in his eyes as he scowled at them as he pulled off his oxygen mask. "Who are you?"

"I am Major General Hammond," the base commander informed him, and gestured to the man beside him. "This is Colonel O'Neill."

"Jack," O'Neill corrected lightly.

Sam nodded at the man on the bed. "Samantha Carter."

"Daniel Jackson," came the archeologist's hesitant words.

"Where is this place?" the man asked coldly.

Hammond stood his ground and frowned slightly. "You're on a planet called Earth. These people saved you."

"Nothing could be further from the truth."

"Unless I missed something, you're better off here than you were there," Daniel commented, his eyes expressing confusion.

"There was a rescue transport on the way."

"Well, half your people were already dead," Jack pointed out, managing to not stare as he saw a sheepish looking Urd coming into the room. Her oddly polite act of standing off to the side to wait allowed him to keep his attention on the conversation at hand. "I don't think it would have gotten there in time."

"Perhaps that's more of a problem for you than it was for us."

"Beg your pardon?"

"I find it unbelievable that anyone so primitive could have deciphered the gate system."

His words apparently struck Urd as humorous, and she snickered slightly. Waving a hand, she smiled apologetically. "Sorry, keep going."

Teal'c merely raised a brow at her before speaking to the rescued man. "I too am from a world very different from this one. Here life is highly valued."

"Quite a statement for a Jaffa," the prone man murmured.

"Sir, I'd like to know who you are and what you know about the Goa'uld," Hammond insisted.

"I am Omoc. Our world is called Tollan."

"A-HA!" declared Urd.

"Are you always this impolite?"

"Are you always this arrogant?"

"I suppose that someone from an inferior world would think of self control as 'arrogance'...."

"Sorry, wrong!" the alien woman said cheerfully. "I am not from this planet, or even your species. Though, being Tollan, I'm surprised that you wouldn't have analyzed it to death."

"Miss Urd? Do you know these people?" the general asked her.

"Not this group in particular, but I know of them. A rather uptight race, if I ever did see one. Entirely wrapped up in their science and reason to realize that they aren't quite as 'superior' as they might like to think."

"If they're not as advanced...."

"Oh, they /are/ advanced... for their stage of development. You see, they have technology which can take on the Goa'uld."

"That could be helpful...."

"Which you will not see," Omac interrupted. "We will not share our technology with primitives."

Urd snorted at the Tollan man. "Get over yourself, would you?"

"And who are you?"

"I am Urd, of the Asgard."

"The Asgard?"

"Maybe you've heard of us. It doesn't matter. I'm not here to see if you need fiber in your diet."

"My people are a very accomplished, and advanced culture!" Omac barked.

"And in the grand scheme of things, your people aren't all that removed from these folk."

"These primitives?"

"Considering the fact that there are races out there who had regular travel between stars when the Tollan ancestors were swinging around trees," the Asgard told him, "I'd doubt that you are as advanced as you think."

"Would that include your race?"

"Well, I was thinking of the Ancients, or the Furlings, but that would also include my people, yes."

"You are telling me that your people are that advanced?" the Tollan asked, sounding like the concept was dubious at best.

"Our ships travel between galaxies. And you should know something else."

"What?"

"These guys are a bit more special than you might think. Appearances can be deceiving," Urd informed him.

"Why doesn't that sound quite like a compliment?" Daniel asked.

"Oh, I don't mean anything bad by it. I was just telling him that you live how you choose, not out of some idea of what is some standard ideal version of life."

Omac gave her a flat look. "And what would you have me do?"

"Nothing much. Just let them help you."

"Only until we are ready to leave this place."

"If you want to be a bad guest, then that's fine by me. So long as you let them do what they need to."

"Then maybe I can finally get my work done?" Doctor Fraiser asked.

"Go right ahead, doc."

"Why, thank you."

Sighing for a moment, Omac set himself to endure what he clearly thought would be an antiquated medical exam... only to blink and stare as he saw something odd being held over his body. "What is that?"

"A medical scanner. Lets me see what's wrong with you so that I can at least have some information before I start treatment."

All that the Tollan could do was hold a confused look on his face.

Leaning in close to his ear, Urd smiled. "Not so primitive, are they, hmmm?"

"You know, I like her style," Jack whispered to his teammates.

* * *

Genma Saotome was a changed man. He was still a bit greedy, still a bit cowardly, still capable of insane-yet-strangely-effective training methods, still not the sharpest tack in the box, and still quite obsessed with the martial arts.

If you were familiar with how he might have turned out though, he was barely recognizable in some respects. He'd distanced himself from Happosai's methods and created the Way Of The Observant Thief. He'd been far more willing to sit back and analyze situations as a result of that set of manuevers, and as a result over the years had gotten a little less dismissive of that whole "everything outside the Art" range of skills.

The problem with Ranma fighting battles outside that Art was that people had weapons that relied less on chi or extensive training, and more on craftsmanship.

There were two approaches Genma pondered. One - avoidance. By using the techniques he already had, Ranma was avoiding combat situations which played to the enemy's strengths and concentrating on his own strengths. Hit and fade attacks were this strategy's mainstay, which were perfectly fine until the opponent developed a counter-strategy and techniques to foil it.

The second approach would be to develop another manuever, either defensive or offensive in nature, which was specifically tailored to these new opponents. The problem with an offensive manuever was the limited range available. Some of these new opponents were limited to a few dozen yards, those staff weapons weren't very accurate at great distances, but others could be nearly a mile or more away in those gliders.

The problem with a defensive manuever was that some of those attacks were quite capable of going through any defense Genma could think of - other than avoidance. In some cases avoidance was going to be very difficult, particularly if the enemy adapted their strategy to compensate for the hit-and-fade tactic.

Genma had spent a good part of the evening, most of breakfast, and part of the morning weighing the problem and trying to work it out. Finally he decided a weapon manuever was the most likely choice, perhaps archery. No, those were too clumsy.

Sighting Breetac, Genma decided another viewpoint might help.

* * *

Omoc's eyes narrowed. "You gave these primitives such technology? Do you have any idea how irresponsible this is?"

"Sorry, wrong again," responded Urd from where she was standing. "That particular technology came from a trade agreement with a sentient tank on a world they've decided to call 'refuge' - one of the worlds that Sailor Galaxia took out."

"What is a 'Sailor Galaxia'?" Omoc asked, thinking that was particularly silly-sounding.

Janet frowned at some of the readings. 99% human, but some of the odd readings indicated cybernetic implants?

"I can't tell you," said Urd, shrugging. "My race has a non-intervention policy with societies that haven't proven themselves. You know how it is. Don't mess with primitive societies."

Omoc scowled even more.

"Blood pressure problems," mumbled Janet, still scanning. "Okay. There's still some residual effects from the volcanic gasses you and your team inhaled - so I'll have to ask you to take it easy and keep from strenuous activity."

"Take your bear skins and prayer beads away thank you, we're entirely capable of treating ourselves," said Omoc, eyeing the scanner device.

"He's a little full of himself," commented Jack, hanging back out of the doctor's way but privately amused by the two aliens and their byplay.

"His people, the Tollan are rated Tech 7, Social 8," said Urd, "whereas your planet would be rated Tech 5, Social 4. It means that their technology has quantum computers, nanoscale fabricators, local space matter transmission, ion cannon technology. Whereas Earth has, this base and a few other spots to the side, just begun a worldwide computer network within the last decade."

"Whereas your own people, the Vanir?" asked Daniel.

"Tech 10, Social 10," said Urd. "Though you understand that there are different paths and ways of developing, the scale being just a rough guideline - sort of a technical shorthand. My Vanir branch and the Aesir branch being prime examples."

"Understood, and the Bolo would be Tech 7?" asked Daniel, wondering if they had this scale written out somewhere.

"The Bolo is a special case," said Urd. "He was built by a Tech 9 culture, but currently has access to repair and upgrade facilities of only Tech 6.8 or so. The data he's sharing with you puts your own technology into Tech 7 category in some areas while following a different path than that of the Tollans."

There was a brief silence as all of them, including Omoc, considered that.

"So why are you here, Miss Urd?" asked General Hammond.

"Well, strictly speaking, I'm not here," answered Urd, passing her hand through an IV pole. "Holographic transmission. I'm currently exiting your solar system aboard an Asgard ship. I just wanted to let the General know that I'm going to be gone a little while, and that Lieutenant Mayo's coming along."

"Lieutenant Mayo is with you?" asked the General.

"Yes, she's being considered for an ambassadorial position," answered Urd, not precisely lying, "and it's best if she gets a first-hand view of a few things before she decides whether or not to take the position."

"That explains your interest in her," said the General, thinking there was probably more to this story. Wasn't Morisato a liason already?

"I'm sure she'll be able to give you an excellent debriefing after her trip," said Urd, smiling when there was a squawk of protest in the background.

"Lieutenant," called out Jack. "Get pictures. Maybe a couple souveneirs. Have fun."

"I'm surprised you don't want to go," mumbled Daniel.

"In a spaceship with Urd for an extended period of time?" asked Jack.

"Oh, right," said Daniel, getting the point.

"Hey, Thor old buddy, how do I change channels on this thing?" asked Urd, pointing at something that was apparently off-camera. She faded out almost immediately thereafter.

Omoc continued to think, considering for the first time that perhaps other peoples would consider his own to be 'primitives'.

* * *

Time progressed, even when a skeptical Senshi Of Time was in a starship hurtling across space at high speeds and no longer in the solar system.

Night was followed by morning, as in other places around the universes.

Some people, however, were NOT morning people.

"Whazzup," said a yawning Usagi.

"Yes," said a far more awake Ami. "You indicated this was something very important."

"Why did you want to meet us here?" asked Makoto, looking around. Open field, nothing much to see at all.

"We clear?" asked Minako, practically bouncing up and down.

"Just a sec," said Melissa, listening on her radio. "Yeah. Perimeter's clear."

"You know what's going on, don't you?" asked Luna.

"I suspect so," said Artemis, wondering if it could be what he thought it was.

"So tell us already," growled Rei, looking a little disheveled herself.

"Venus Star Power," said Minako, hefting up her wand, "Make Up!"

"What would happen," wondered Melissa aloud, "if you said something other than Make Up. That just seems so..."

"Should we transform too?" asked Ami.

"This is the neat part," explained Sailor Venus. She swept through a couple of graceful moves, then leapt to the side. "Venus Aerospace Bomber!"

With a rumbling noise, the air parted and something came through that rift.

"EEEP!" said Makoto, who was afraid of airplanes.

"Oh my," said Ami, reaching for her Mercury Computer.

"Whoa," said Usagi.

"More military encroachment on our lives," grumbled Rei.

"WHAT?!" yelped Luna. "What is THAT? We didn't need anything like THAT in the Silver Millenium!"

"Looks kinda neat to me," offered Artemis. "How fast does it go?"

"FAST," exclaimed Venus, climbing up to the cockpit as soon as it had landed.

"Minako-chan, how did you get such a thing?" asked Ami, not missing the Venus symbols in strategic places around the vehicle.

* * *

"Maybourne here," said the Colonel, listening to the receiver. "Huh. More aliens? Did they bring any goodies? Oh. Another nonintervention treaty. Refugees. You want what? Yes, sir, I understand those are orders. Do you know how backlogged my staff is with current projects? Yes sir, I understand. Yes. Yes. National security. Yes. I understand. Yes, sir. Right away, sir."

Colonel Maybourne put the phone down and looked at it as if it were some venomous creature which was threatening to bite him.

"Problem sir?" asked an aide.

"You could say that," said Colonel Maybourne. "Really, what are they thinking?"

"Sir?"

"We're over capacity right now just trying to work out manufacturing and supply problems with some of the equipment we're trying to back-engineer here," continued Maybourne. "We had that woman in leather walking through our security zones with impunity."

"We only had the one picture from one security camera, and that one..." the aide's voice trailed off.

"Yes, I know, vanished after it was sent to Washington," said Colonel Maybourne. "Followed by orders to destroy our own copy and that the theft never occurred."

"Yes sir," agreed the aide, not feigning that she was puzzled.

Colonel Maybourne was not. He had his hands dirty, he'd been involved in covert operations of questionable legality and dubious morality for more years than he cared to think about. He admired several of the people at Cheyenne Mountain - Jack had his own dirty deeds but had put all that behind him. General Hammond had taken command of a cosmic joke and turned it into an operation that had the Joint Chiefs eagerly awaiting the next report and gossiping like schoolkids with a winning football team.

Colonel Maybourne sat back, steepling his hands and unintentionally looking rather like Gendo Ikari for the moment. His first loyalty was to his country, everything he did was for the benefit of the United States. Second was to himself, and third was the military. Sometimes the numbering was subject to shuffling, but that was basically the main pillar of his life. Something had stirred within him during that battle with the energy vampires, but he remained himself.

How he interpreted the situation would have shocked his superiors, though it was completely within his own framework. Having been involved in dirty secrets and deals over the years, and since events had worked out the way they had - he had come to a simple conclusion.

Someone in Washington had been compromised. Mind control technology or abilities were in use, and this leather-clad woman who walked through walls and casually shut off security measures designed to keep HUMANS out was the main suspect. He'd have to be especially careful, gather more resources all in secret. He might end up targetted himself if he slipped up and let anyone know he was onto them.

He glanced at the still photo copied and sent to him from a MALP transmission. Tropical paradise. He could just see himself, finding a nice little island somewhere there. Spend the days fishing and eating tropical fruit, maybe.

Or maybe he could get ahold of a giant robot and go out in a blaze of glory, defending the Earth from the Goa'uld. Either outcome had its points.

"Nothing, just thinking," said Colonel Maybourne to his aide. "We'll have to go to Cheyenne Mountain and retrieve some people."

"Yes sir, we'll be ready immediately," said the aide.

"No no, that won't do," gently chastised the Colonel. "We need to prepare everything. Make sure we look non-threatening. Also give the men involved a physical. We have to make sure we don't bring any Earth germs into contact with these fellows."

* * *

"Signal confirmed."

It was just two words, but the effect on the crowded command center might have been likened to declaring that nuclear missiles were inbound.

"You're sure?" asked the base commander, who realized it was a stupid question and terribly cliche, but was hoping this would turn out to be a bad joke or perhaps some higher echelon type deciding to test preparedness.

"Confirmed," said the technician, who had checked three times himself for very similar reasons to his CO.

There were perhaps a dozen people at the airbase who were in the know of what to look for with this new equipment, and of them only one who knew more. The rest merely knew that since a) it had to be brought immediately and directly to the base commander and ignore sending it up the chain-of-command, and b) that this was so damn secret that you better not even dream about it, and c) the name given the gadget was Gjall. Those who knew something of Norse mythology (which was quite a few of late) figured out what that meant.

No, everyone who had seen the thing being installed knew it was connected to a set of sensors strung up in odd places all over the base.

They were the nearest airbase to Cheyenne Mountain, and the General in charge knew General Hammond. He also knew WHY the alarm would go off, and WHAT it meant. "Location?"

"It moved from the periphery and is now located here," said the technician, going to a security display and bringing up a corner view. "That's odd, I don't see anything."

"Pan up," said the General, frowning.

"I still don't see..." said the technician, breaking off with a frown. "There must be something wrong with the camera."

The General let out a deep breath. There at the top of the phone pole, the light shimmered slightly as if something made of glass was almost visible. "Go through all spectra."

"Waitaminute," said the technician. Several times he almost had something, the edges of a distortion that flickered in and out of being. Then he abruptly found it. "That can't be right."

The woman crouched atop the light pole, peering around as if looking for something. She was wearing tight leather and had a cape streaming out behind her. She abruptly leapt out of the picture.

"Tracking," said the technician, not understanding this at all but given the three points listed earlier wasn't inclined to dismiss this as a joke. Someone was obviously taking this seriously and it wasn't as if ALL instruments could be malfunctioning.

The General let out a deep breath, weighing options. "Good, keep tracking the anomaly. I have to make a call."

General Hammond would have to be notified, besides, it was only fair someone else should have a sleepless night.

* * *

Marller continued to search. Somewhere in this miserable world there was the Senbei Program, an AI that was a distillation of what the natives called "Murphy's Law." Left here millenia ago, it should have caused these pathetic primitives to never advance beyond grubbing in the dirt. She had tracked it to this country, where the highest per kilometer square group of lawyers occurred. She had tracked it from a place called "LA" to where it had recently come here.

Once she had the Senbei Program, she could unleash its full potential on that Keiichi Morisato and cut the ties that kept the Vanir here. When THAT happened, with any luck, these humans would turn on each other and begin a nuclear war. What fun THAT would be. She hadn't seen a civilization kill itself off in centuries.

For a moment she'd thought she was being observed and had checked her Cloaking. No, they'd never know she was here - they were primitives after all.

* * *

**_AUTHOR'S NOTES:_**

There's still a lot to be posted here on this, and i'll be doing it as time allows.

Right now i'm still working on the Mischief Fragment segments, and also the Anime Addventure threads that me and Kender round-robin on.

i'm also currently trying out Lord Of The Rings Online. i'm not playing World Of Warcraft (Greylle, lvl 64 dwarf paladin, Silver Hand server) due to the problems of having to solo everything in that game. Between that and doing my Continuing Education for work, plus work itself, its slowed writing time down.

Well, that and getting stuck fighting a frakking bulbasaur in Final Fantasy XIII. i want cheat codes dang it! fratzing ratzin game designers.


	19. Chapter 19: Meetings and Moons

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Chapter 19: Meetings and Moons

* * *

There was something more than just patriotism or 'following the family career' that kept Samantha Carter in the Air Force, and would have even if she hadn't been in the Stargate program. As an officer, she knew her responsibilities, but having a job where she'd be expected to shoot a gun wasn't as high up as some of the others might have had. To tell the truth, she was a 'techie', pure and simple. Being in the Air Force let her get her hands on some of the best equipment around, and being part of SG-1 allowed her to be at the forefront of working with alien technology.

Basically, she was a girl who had her favorite sort of toys.

At the moment, she was standing in the Gateroom and was humming along as she worked on what looked like a really big model plane. It was big, white, and apparently something that she was having a ball wiring. Her eyes were lit with delight, and her smile was one of a kid with a favored plaything.

Seeing her as soon as he came in, Daniel gave a wry grin. "New hobby?"

"Neat, huh? Miniature UAV with all the bells and whistles," Sam said with a chuckle. "I'm just adding heat sensors so I can send it through the gate to Tollan."

"Hmm.... I was just down in the infirmary with one of the Tollan, trying to get them to talk to us. They only ask questions, they never answer them. As a matter of fact, one of them was asking a lot of questions about you."

"I thought they weren't interested in us."

"Oohh... I didn't say 'us'," her friend told her. "I said 'you'. General Hammond thinks maybe you'll have better luck getting some answers." "Me?"

"Yes, you. They don't seem to be too impressed with Teal'c, and I've kind of been stuck as the answer man. And as for Jack, he's... not so good with the negotiation skills in a position like this."

"I can guess."

"Yeah, well, this isn't exactly an easy position for us, so we've have to work with what we have. Not that what we have is much. Both General Hammond and Jack agree on that. Still, he wants to see you," Jackson responded.

"Colonel O'Neill?"

"General Hammond. His idea is for you to use his interest in you to get this guy to open up to you enough so that we can understand them better."

Carter missed any subtleties, and merely nodded. "Okay...."

* * *

"I'm certain that you are wondering why you're here," the man behind the desk said with utter seriousness.

Colonel Frank Simmons raised his brows by only a small bit, and gave the powerful individual a level look. "Actually, sir, I believe that I am perfectly aware of what you called me here about."

"Do you now?"

"Yes, sir. You already are aware that I have been given access to files pertaining to 'Stargate Command', and have a thorough knowledge of the pieces involved. What you want is someone that you can count on, Mister Weiber."

"Very impressive. And just what I would expect from you," Weiber answered.

"I aim to please. Some of the time."

"Indeed. And just so that you know, you are as accurate as you could be. My peers and I need someone that we can... trust in a time like this. We need to have an ability to watch out for our interests, and the way things stand, that may be a problem."

Simmons leaned back in the expensive guest chair he was seated in. "You can't totally control them."

"Exactly. The pieces out there are not as... loyal as we might like, including your... 'mentor'."

"Colonel Maybourne has always been something of a... scoundrel, I'll admit. He does have a habit of being friendly with enemies, and manipulating things to his personal advantage."

"Which is exactly the problem. He may be useful, but we need an insurance policy. Just so that our interests are still met. It doesn't matter how much technology we get, or how we get it. In the end, what matters is that we have it. Scientists can be brought from anywhere on the planet."

"And it does not matter what we do outside of our world, since our concerns are all based right here."

"Exactly."

* * *

"What I _/want/_ from you, /Colonel/, is for you to return what was taken, and return us to where you took us from," Omoc insisted.

Jack pressed his lips together and waggled a finger at the alien man. "That's where we're going to have a problem."

"Yet another example of a primitive race trying to complicate things."

"Actually, you're wrong on that."

"What?" the Tollan leader replied, looking about at the small group of his people in the room. "How are we wrong?"

"No, just you. You see, we can't do all that you ask."

"You want our technology, don't you?"

"Actually... no. Personally, you can strap it back onto your oh so advanced bodies, and scamper off to where all the other pompous children go," the colonel said with a mocking smile. "Unfortunately, we have this little problem about letting you go to that world. It's called a 'respect for life', and at the moment, only the fact that it's a 'dry' heat is good about it."

"We know the risks."

"Wonderful. Then you can understand why we wouldn't want to send you to a place where you can play with ash like snow."

"We do not 'play' as you would have us do," Omoc scoffed.

"Really. No wonder you're cranky. But anyway, you couldn't go there until we make sure that you could go. So, enjoy yourselves, and think of this as a vacation someplace nice and remote."

"We'd much rather like to leave, if you don't mind."

"To tell the truth, I'd love to be able to let you go. Perhaps if you gave us the address for your new world, we could knock on the door, and drop you off."

"That won't happen. Our world is not on the Gate network."

"Oh. That would be a problem," O'Neill admitted.

"I thought that it would be. But you insist on trying to portray yourselves as 'understanding' that which is none of your concern. So, unless you have a ship that we can take to our new world, I suggest that you just send us back to where we came from."

"Uhh.... Let me get back to you on that."

Omoc stared dully at the Earth human. "You have a ship that we can take?"

"Not 'take'. More like 'hitch a ride on', or so we can hope. And not here on Earth, last time that I checked. But I'll see what I can do. Hopefully I can help you guys get on your way, if you don't mind having to take rides on ships run by us."

All that Omac could do was stare at the colonel who pointed a finger at him and left.

* * *

"So these three schools were originally developed as approaches to thievery," said Breetac thoughtfully. "The styles of the 'noisy thief', the 'silent thief', and the 'observant thief'?"

"That is so," agreed Genma. "My original teacher had certain... activities which he indulged in." Genma left unsaid that he himself was likely to indulge in thievery, though he hadn't done that for years and currently lapsing back into such things was unthinkable. Right now he had something he never thought he would have, and never would have thought he'd come to value as much as he did - respect.

"So in one case - assault, in the second - avoidance, in the third - observation," said Breetac.

"Philosophies and origins beside the point, the styles are very different. The Mountain is meant for direct assault and putting down your opponent quickly," said Genma. "All of the manuevers are meant to be done within a very short range, mostly by direct contact. The Ocean is another matter. Avoiding conflict is the main aim. The Hawk is another thing altogether, missing very little that passes around it - only striking when the target is sure and the path clear."

"Mental state is important," said Breetac, rubbing the stubble along his jaw.

"Yes," agreed Genma. "Calm is important for the 'silent thief' or 'observant thief', while anger works well for the 'noisy thief'. Intense emotions can be used to help channel the energy for... students."

"You've thought of something?" asked Breetac.

"There is a manuever I've heard of, called the 'Shishi Hokoudan', which uses depression to channel a chi attack," said Genma. "I worked out the basics at one point while researching for the Observant Thief."

"'Depression'?" asked Breetac.

"Neither I nor my son are particularly prone to depression," pointed out Genma. "Therefore I never pursued the manuever."

"What if I used something other than depression?"

"It appears your son is awake," said Breetac drily.

"Yes, he snuck up when you were asking about mental states," said Genma. "Sloppy work, Ranma. We'll have to up your training."

"Hmph," hmphed Ranma.

"Still that's a point," admitted Genma.

* * *

Colonel Maybourne tapped the papers thoughtfully. He couldn't stall without being obvious, but had pointed out the old 'HG Wells' scenario of aliens dying from a common cold. That wouldn't do at all.

Personal feelings to the side, he had been given his orders and would try to fulfill those orders to the best of his abilities. He had his networks of contacts, his dossier of dirty deeds, and his own considerable abilities.

Therefore he knew there were others being groomed to displace him should he prove too free-willed. He even had dossiers on the top three candidates.

He had to go after these 'Tollans' but it didn't mean he liked it and it didn't mean that he couldn't extend the diplomatic courtesy to General Hammond of calling ahead a couple of hours and asking if he'd like anything for lunch since he was coming anyway.

* * *

General Hammond frowned. Colonel O'Neill also frowned, having just been told about the phone call.

"This is bad," said General Hammond, pondering a call directly to the President.

"Why did he warn us he was coming?" said Colonel O'Neill. "If he'd come here with complete surprise there's a chance he could have gotten them."

"Not much of a chance of that," said the General but nodding. "I think you're right though, it was a warning."

"So he's bringing KFC?" asked Jack, finding a single bright spot in the scenario.

"One box of Oven Roasted for SG-1, two Extra Crispy of various pieces - some dark," absently said the General.

"No sir, THAT's the warning," said Colonel O'Neill.

"What?" asked the General.

"He said that exactly, did he?" asked the Colonel. At the General's nod, the Colonel explained. "Often in the field during covert operations you have to use code phrases worked into normal conversation. He's telling you that there are factions which will back us, SG-1 itself, and there are a large number of factions that will not. Some of whom are not above 'black ops'."

The General's expression grew thoughtful. "You got all that from an order from KFC?"

"I've done similar things in the past," said the Colonel. "And I'll bet Maybourne knows that too. Man, this is exactly the sort of thing I hate going to Washington for. He's probably tipping his hand now to ask for a favor down the road."

"I see," said the General, and he did see. "Oh, you never did tell me how the field test of that flyer went at Area 51."

Just the grin and light in the Colonel's eyes in response to that told him a great deal about that particular experience.

* * *

Ranma had heard about the Shishi Hokoudan, and he'd practiced the Kijin Raishu Dan. The idea of a chi attack, ranged, wasn't too hard to pull off.

Using emotion to fuel a chi attack was different, but he supposed he could manage something like that. Besides, he needed something like Hotaru's 'Silence Glaive Surprise' or that Minako's 'Crescent Beam' attack. He didn't like the idea of being any less of a warrior than anyone else out on that field.

He tried depression, and ended up with something much like a soap bubble. Okay, the Shishi Hokoudan was NOT going to work for him. He needed something he had that was easier for him to manage and maintain. Something like...

"Mouko Takabisha!" tried Ranma, getting this time a chi bullet that slammed into a rock face. Seeing it boosted his confidence somewhat, and his second one exhausted him but also did more damage. He was on to something there.

The problem was that the range was STILL not very good, and it was WAY less powerful than either a Silence Glaive Surprise or Crescent Beam.

Ranma considered that when something occurred to him. He was doing much as a typical martial artist. All his power was coming from HIM. He didn't transform. These gals like Hotaru all tapped into some kinda magic.

So what he needed, to be able to work directly at that level, was magic or something like that but that HE could tap into.

Now, how did one get ahold of such a thing?

* * *

"Venus Aerospace Bomber, aka 'P-chan', launch!"

The ship went to very fast speed, well, very fast.

Aida turned the volume down as Sailor V began singing the theme song from some obscure anime.

"So how did this happen?" asked Rei.

"Sailor Saturn discovered that the Senshi transformation is adaptive," said Melissa. "By thinking of a gun provided by her father as an accessory - she was able to include it in her transformation."

"I see," said Ami, still scanning the now-distant aerospace vehicle.

Various Senshi began seriously pondering this development.

"We didn't need that sort of thing in the Silver Millenium," protested Luna.

Melissa considered how weird things had gotten that she took talking cats in stride nowadays.

"Maybe so," said Artemis, "but this way they don't need to Sailor Teleport and they can get an aerial view of targets."

"Whose side are you on?" asked an irritated Luna.

"The same side I've always been on," said Artemis thoughtfully. "I just like the idea of having more options."

* * *

Susan Meiou shifted to become Setsuna Meiou, who in turn became Sailor Pluto.

Thor's blinking was the only immediate reaction to that.

Urd glanced at Pluto. "By the way. Why do you get nail polish, then wear gloves? What's the point?"

"As I understand it, the Makeup Transformation was developed by commitee," said Sailor Pluto drily.

"Ah," said Urd, agreeing that it didn't have to make sense. "In any case, here's what they call the 'Milky Way Galaxy' on Earth. Strange people to name their own galaxy after a candy bar."

"Rather the other way around," said Pluto, wincing.

"It's quite all right," said Thor pleasantly. "I don't get her jokes either."

"I expected muscular with a big... hammer for Thor," said Pluto.

"Please, you're sufficiently sophisticated that such deceptions are not necessary," said Thor, wincing himself.

"Anyway, the Milky Way galaxy?" asked Pluto, turning to regard the hologram. "The blue-shaded area means something?"

"This is Goa'uld controlled space," answered Urd. "They are the current enemies facing SG-1 and Earth. The red here is our current enemies, the Replicators. In green is Asgard. The darker shade is the Aesir like Thor."

"You have enemies?" asked Pluto.

"Unfortunately, yes, and this limits our resources," said Urd. "Not that our numbers are particularly great at present."

"Both of our races are essentially static with accidents whittling away our number slowly, and the menace of the Replicators not helping in that regard," added Thor.

"Don't you have to pilot the ship?" asked Pluto.

"I am piloting the ship," said Thor. "Actually sitting at a console and manually manipulating the controls is not always necessary."

"So where are we heading?" asked Pluto.

"The first world is not on the Stargate network," said Urd. "It's one that Sailor Galaxia visited and therefore should be of interest to you. As I understand from the files at SGC, you might be familiar with it."

"Really?" asked Pluto. "Why's that?"

"Two of the Princess' advisors came from Planet Mau," answered Urd. "That's where we're heading."

* * *

Balancing the plate that she held as she walked, Hotaru hoped that she could open the door without causing too many problems. Experience was one thing, but she was still getting used to the idea of Refuge's ever changing look. She could remember when the first quick buildings were put up, and remembered the difference between them and tents. But that had been only in the beginning of the place, and these days there were so much building going on that the locations where things were seemed to be always changing.

Not that she minded all that much, and was just happy to do what she could to help. Still, even she had to admit that there were certain places that she preferred to help than others. And as she reached the open door that she'd been looking for, she knew that this was one such place.

Ranma didn't look up though, as he had his eyes totally focused on what was in front of him. A mild frown crossed her face, and she walked over to find him looking at a thick book. But he didn't even look up at her when she got right next to him, so she put the platter of food that she'd brought for him on the table that he was using as a desk.

That woke him from whatever stupor he was in, and he jumped a little as he realized that his surroundings existed. "Wha? Ha? Huh? Hotaru?"

"Hello, Ranma," she replied with her concern shown in both gaze and tone. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I just didn't think that you'd sneak up on me."

"I knocked on the door, walked straight over to you, and put the food down."

"Oh."

"You sure that you are okay?"

"I'm sure. It's just that I've been... studyin'. Bleh," he revealed, complete with sticking his tongue out.

"I see, but I don't remember you having any assignments to work on. Why study then?"

"This is personal. Ya see, I've been tryin' ta find out ways ta fight better."

Her brows pinched together in a show of annoyance on his behalf. "You're the best fighter I know...."

"For my age, sure. But ya have ta remember that there are other guys who've got real big powers, and I wanna be able ta face 'em the best I can."

"You want to fight them that much?"

"Not really. It's just that not all of 'em are gonna leave us alone, ya know. I'd kinda like ta be able ta put more inta the fights. And if I can do that, I'll have a better chance of makin' sure that we can get home."

"You're doing this to help out? That's so good of you!"

A light blush worked up on his cheeks, and he had to cough to make his voice get stable before he spoke. "Thanks for the compliment. Don't thank me too soon though. Ya see, I've been tryin' ta find somethin' that'd help me get some sort of power ta be stronger, but the thing is that all I'm findin' is weapons. They do have powers that people can use...."

"That's good, right?"

"It is, but the thing is that a weapon could be taken away, and even used against ya. Plus, all of these things are 'legendary', or 'mythic', and I don't know which ones are real, if any of 'em are, never mind findin' 'em."

"Well, I'm sure that something will come up for you. It has to," she said with utter confidence.

"I'll try...."

"I know that you'll do your best."

The pigtailed boy grinned, and flexed an arm. "Ya can be sure that my 'best' will get me what I'm lookin' for!"

"Don't forget to eat."

"I know. I know...."

All she could do was smile helplessly at his 'admonished little boy' voice, and wonder if other girls had to watch over the guys like she had to from time to time.

* * *

"You know, you can't do anything more with it for now," Michiru idly commented.

Haruka looked up from her study of her motorcycle and shrugged. "I know, but I can't get rid of the feeling that I can do something more with it."

"Well, such machines aren't my area of expertise, so I'll bow out from making a judgement. Though, I do think that there is one thing that you can't do."

"And that is...."

"Holding what's in your hands like it's a wrench."

"Hmm?" the blonde murmured, and looked down to see herself holding her transformation wand. "I wonder how that got there."

Her partner just rolled her eyes and shook her head.

* * *

"Then we can not go back?" Omoc asked.

"What?" Carter asked for a moment as she watched Narim pet the cat that she'd brought him on his bunk before she shook her head free of the distracting thoughts and focused on the job at hand. "Oh, yes. I'd say that's definitely so. You wouldn't survive long enough to even stay there, never mind dial out again."

"Not unless you like that much heat. The lava covering the Gate might be more of a problem though," O'Neill put in.

"Then nature succeeded where we failed," the Tollan leader commented.

"Unfortunately, we also have a problem here too. You see, some rather uptight guys, the sort you might understand, are sending someone here to pick you up."

"And so we are proven right, and will be your prisoners."

"Hey, I don't like the idea either. If it were up to me, I'd give you a nice party, and send you on your way."

Daniel pushed his glasses up higher on his nose. "The problem with that we can't exactly do that. They won't let us use the Gate or ships to take you home ourselves."

"As I said before," Omac stated, "yours is a primitive society that is too dangerous for its own good."

"Okay, can we stop it with the 'high and mighty' routine? It's getting kind of old," Jack grumbled.

"If I might remind you, your own alien associates have said that your race is culturally backwards."

"No, she said that it was... a 'five' on the advancement chart. But you on the other hand...."

"Yes?"

"You talk about how just 'giving' technology to other, less 'advanced' groups isn't so hot an idea. Well, newsflash, you give someone things they don't understand, of _course_ they're going to screw up."

"So you agree with me on my assessment of your people?" Omac asked him.

"Oh, you're not going to get me to do that. The truth is that you guys messed up too. You see, on my world, this one your standing on... in, whatever, there's a saying. 'With great power comes great responsibility'."

"'Peter Parker'?" Jackson murmured.

"Yeah. I thought that it was appropriate here."

The head of the Tollan team waved off their words. "I'm certain that your philosopher is someone highly regarded on this world, but I'm not sure that you understand the words. We _are_ being responsible for our powers, and you can not know what sort of trouble can come from someone who is not mature enough to understand the dangers of what they may come across."

"I sure as hell know _exactly_ what can happen when something gets into the wrong hands," the colonel snapped, his eyes flashing with some undisclosed anger. "But what you don't seem to be realizing is that you have your head too far up your ass to realize the other mistakes that you made."

"And you do?"

"Actually... yeah. Now, you say that giving things to other races makes for big messes? Well, I may be a 'primitive', but I do realize something wrong with that. Who, in their right mind, simply drops off something potentially dangerous off with someone who doesn't know how to work the damned thing right, and leaves them to it."

"They knew what they were working with."

"Did they? And did they also get you to show them how to use it? Or did you just give them a manual, and say, 'have a nice day'? Because the second one would be rather irresponsible," Jack commented.

"Those people knew how to use what they were given."

"Maybe physically, but if you thought that they were primitive, then why leave them to do whatever it is that has you so anal now?"

Omoc looked O'Neill straight in the eye. "What are you saying?"

"I am saying that you have to realize that you can't just isolate yourselves from your mistakes. You do that, and you won't recognize what playing nice with others will do for you."

"And what would you give us? We are already your prisoners."

"Trust me, if we could, we'd try whatever we could. But since the ships and using the Gate are out, we have a problem. Of course, we could have ET phone home...."

"What did you say?" Daniel asked.

"What, about not acting like they need more fiber in their diet?"

"No, after that."

"What? 'ET'?" O'Neill replied uncertainly.

"That's it!"

"What is?"

"We call someone out there."

Sam looked at her friend and pursed her lips. "Daniel, even if we could call someone, what would it do? The only ones with ships are the Asgard, and if we try to get Belldandy or Skuld here, they won't arrive in time, never mind alerting the people who want them of what we're doing."

"I never said that we would call a ship."

"Then what would you have us call for?" Omoc asked.

"What he said," Jack reluctantly seconded.

"We don't only know the Asgard," Jackson told him. "Think about it."

"I'm thinking...."

"Okay, try this one on for size. Who do we know who are highly advanced, but live really simply?"

"Well...."

"They can hide anything they want, and can activate Stargates, but will help anyone, no matter who they are. And they're all really against violence...."

Realization began to spread across Jack's features, and he grinned as he waggled a finger at the archeologist's face. "You're really smart, you know that. I knew that there was a reason that we kept you around."

"Oh, gee, thanks," Jackson muttered sarcastically.

"Who would you be speaking about?" Narim piped up, and raised a brow when Omoc looked at him.

"The Nox."

Omoc frowned. "Who are they?"

"A race of people who are more than likely more advanced then your own," Carter informed him. "They were allies with the Asgard, and the Ancients, the builders of the Gate system."

"And they can do all sorts of amazing things. And they even called us 'young', so you should fit right in," Jack drawled.

"Then what is the problem?" the Tollan leader asked.

"They kind of buried their Gate the last time that we saw them," Daniel admitted.

"And you want them to help us?"

"If we could get a message to them, they just might be able to."

"Then all we need is a way to communicate the need."

The archeologist nodded, and gave a wry grin. "That's the problem. So, unless you have a way to tell them to come visit...."

"If you have the coordinates of their world, we do."

"Pardon?"

"Should this be a true possibility, we have ways of making it happen."

The members of SG-1 in the room looked at each other for a moment.

* * *

"This is it, Planet Mau. Formerly protected by Sailor Iron Cat," said Urd, making a sweeping gesture that changed the display from a galaxy to a single world.

"Interesting, I am registering lifeforms," said Thor, sounding intrigued. "These were not detectable on the last survey."

"Okay, it's not completely dead," said Urd. "There's precedent though."

"Someone survived?" asked Sailor Pluto as the display showed dead cities, withered landscapes, and sections where the land itself was rent asunder.

"Not someone," said Thor. "It appears that some plants escaped the destruction by utilizing spore forms and are now trying to make a comeback."

"There's also those bacteria which thrive in volcanic vents, fungus that lives in icy conditions, things like that," said Urd. "No sentient or animal life."

"Well, your Yggdrasil gives you access to information that my ship's sensors lacks," allowed Thor.

"It has its uses, unfortunately the usefulness is somewhat limited by our own opponents, the Helcrew," admitted Urd.

"MORE enemies?" asked Pluto.

"Duality, one of the basic rules of the universe," said Urd. "There will always be opposition. Even on the level of microscopic life there will always be competition and struggle. More complex life merely makes the struggle itself more complex."

Setsuna frowned, having trouble with this sort of statement coming from someone who was displaying as much cleavage as the brown-skinned woman.

"There," said Urd, her eyes flicking to a point on the planet.

"Yes, you're right," said Thor, bringing up what was a city once.

"That... skeleton is merged with the wall," said Sailor Pluto, having seen death a few times over the years but this was a bit grotesque.

"Oh, not that," said Urd. "If you like that sort of thing, there's two skeletons fused together over there. I imagine that one of Galaxia's little minions was feeling playful. They were likely still alive when their spines were fused. No, the really interesting thing is that after everything Galaxia did - the planet has begun its recovery."

"How can you dismiss this sort of thing?" asked Sailor Pluto, looking in more detail at the pictures and realizing how many long-dead skeletal bodies were showing signs of tortured and painful death.

"You get numb to this sort of thing after awhile," Urd said. "I don't like it, however we can't simply intervene in other's affairs."

"Civilized people live by rules, however much some cultures and individuals might argue otherwise," said Thor with a glance at Urd and a tone that neither of the others missed.

"Not talking about anyone in particular, are we?" asked Urd, a hint of danger in her voice.

"Who me? Hardly. Soul of tact, just ask anyone," responded Thor.

Sailor Pluto made a face at THOR of Viking legend describing himself as tactful.

"There, you see it? Grass." Urd pointed at the scene. "Very good job."

"It may take millions of years yet, but this means the planet will eventually recover," provided Thor.

Sailor Pluto looked out at this world and considered something that had been said earlier. "This world is one of several that Galaxia has destroyed?"

"Yes," agreed Urd.

"Galaxia is coming to Earth?" asked Sailor Pluto.

"Yes," repeated Urd. "You see - she is removing Chaos. Life is by nature a bit chaotic."

"I see," said Sailor Pluto.

"Head on over to Refuge," suggested Urd to Thor. "There's some interesting people for her to meet."

* * *

Walking outside wasn't normally a problem for Daniel Jackson, as he'd always been able to handle the 'great outdoors'. As an archeologist, he'd been working in various climates, and knew that one didn't exactly get climate controlled rooms and comfy chairs when one was on a dig. That hadn't meant that he was in the best of shape for a good part of his life, but he was perfectly able to understand how to travel outside without too much effort.

He stumbled at that moment, and was clearly unable to accept that he was where he was.

"Are you okay, Doctor Jackson?" Narim asked as he helped the other man to stand steady.

"I think so," the archeologist confirmed, patting his chest. "I'm just not used to.... Well.... That wasn't.... Do you do that all the time?"

"The means of travel that we took?"

"Yeah. I'm kind of used to walls being solid. Walking through them was new for me."

The Tollan man laughed a little. "Well, understand that such travel isn't a usual thing for us. We have walls as well."

"Really? Interesting. But.... How did we do that?"

"You now wish to find out our technology, since you have found something new?" Omac asked in almost accusatory tones.

"Not really."

"Oh?"

Daniel gave him a small grin and shrugged. "I'm an archeologist. I figure out the basics of a civilization, and then leave it to the experts to tell me how certain things worked. Now, unless you've suddenly gone back to using wooden wagons, I'm not exactly someone who could understand anything really technical about your stuff."

"Then why make that comment?"

"Interest? That was quite a ride, and I felt kind of like a kid then...."

"You are an odd man," the Tollan leader muttered. "A mix of growing maturity and child...."

"Wow. Thanks...."

"It is... a compliment, put in the best way that I can tell you."

"I'll have to accept it then. But I do have to wonder about two things."

"Yes?"

"First.... If you could do that all the time, then why didn't you just leave?"

"We had to determine your intentions," Omoc stated.

"Okay. I can understand that."

"Then what else is there?"

"The second thing that I mentioned earlier? How are you going to manage to call on the Nox?" Jackson asked.

"Do you have the coordinates?"

"Oh, right.... They're right.... Here."

Omoc took the paper from him, and looked it over before pulling an item off of his sleeve, placing it on the ground. A single tap was all that he did to it, and a beam of light shot up from the object into the sky.

Seeing it happen clearly impressed the archeologist, but his expression went from 'awed' to confused. "Listen, I'm no astronomer, but won't that take thousands of years to reach the Nox world?" "Why would it?" the Tollan leader asked.

"Well, that's just a laser, right? I mean... light takes a long time to travel that far."

Taking a twig in his hands, Omac held it up where the Earth man could see it. "The distance between these two points seems far. Until you do this."

"OK... OK, I remember this from college physics. One of our scientists, Einstein, explained this the same way. You are talking about actually folding space," Jackson said as he watched the older man bend the twig into a circle.

"No. You wouldn't understand."

"No, I guess not. I just hope the Nox do."

"One thing though."

"Yes?"

"Your friends do not seem willing to take the same risks for us that you are...." Omoc told him.

"Oh, they're willing. But I've got something that they don't."

"And that would be?"

"The fact that I'm not enlisted in the military. They can't court martial me for doing stuff, so I have a lot more options," the archeologist revealed to the Tollan men, who both nodded in understanding.

* * *

Later:  
Watching the Tollans march through the Stargate was the usual entourage.

Jack gave a little wave. Daniel nodded. Sam said something about taking care of the cat. Colonel Maybourne snapped his fingers.

"Well, darn," said Colonel Maybourne. "We certainly can't needlessly antagonize the Nox despite the lack of cooperation they're giving us."

Even the Nox present seemed to regard the Colonel with skepticism. Heck, even the CAT was looking at Colonel Maybourne with a "WTF?" expression.

"We certainly can't give you technology," said the Nox woman, nodding at Daniel Jackson.

"Wouldn't expect you to," said Colonel Maybourne. "If I'd expect anything in that regard it would be something like 'don't attempt to accelerate decay rates in radioactive isotopes because you'll never get the fine tuning right without blowing up half the planet' or something like that."

More stares pointed in the Colonel's direction.

"If it were up to me," said Colonel Maybourne.

"Which it isn't," put in General Hammond.

"If there was one thing," said Colonel Maybourne, apparently addressing the ceiling, "that we'd REALLY like to know - it's how to defend against whatever mind control mechanism those 'evil sailors' used. But frankly I don't think that YOU know how to do that either."

"Mind control?" asked one of the Tollans. "'evil sailors'?"

Colonel Maybourne handed off a CD in a paper sleeve. "Relevant data is there. See, we believe that when nasty little aliens go around exterminating planets - we ought to offer at least fair warning about those teeny tiny problems."

"Are you feeling all right, Colonel?" asked General Hammond.

Colonel Maybourne thumped his chest and met Jack's eyes. "Never better. Odd side effect from that fight with the Beryl entity. All sorts of things coming up and there's some concern from above about side-effects but I'm sure I can weather it. I'm relatively sure I'm OK as long as I don't strain anything."

"Got you," said Jack.

"Knew you would, Jack, General, ladies," said Colonel Maybourne, turning smartly and exiting while whistling a tune.

* * *

Much later:

"These caninoids," began Daniel Jackson.

"'canin-oids?'" asked Jack.

"Humanoids descended from some sort of canine ancestor," said Daniel Jackson. "The original inhabitants of Xeno and Refuge. The nanotechnologists."

"Ah," said Jack, understanding. He glanced to the side and couldn't help but make a comment. "Captain? Are you still having trouble sleeping?"

"Coffee," said Samantha Carter. "Coffee good."

Teal'c, Daniel, and Jack all looked very thoughtful at that response.

"You got the most recent data regarding Miss Aino, I take it," said Jack.

"Not possible. Nope," said Sam.

"Getting back to the caninoids?" tried Daniel.

"Yes," said Jack more enthusiastically, "do tell." He made a mental note to try and get Janet to look at Carter later.

"They were not, apparently, the Furlings that were considered one of the Four Races. We've met the Asgard and the Nox, we are apparently the descendents of the Ancients -" Daniel let that hang in the air.

"Yeah, we're the New Ancients On The Block," said Jack, then made a face as that joke fell flat on his own ears. "So what are these Furlings anyway? They aren't like those teddy-bear things in that Star Wars movie are they?"

"I'd tend to doubt it," said Daniel.

"Good, but I don't know, with a name like that I'd expect cute and fuzzy." Jack shuddered as if that was truly horrible.

"In any case, their civilization is gone and we are allied with their heirs," pointed out Teal'c.

* * *

Still later:

"So we're in agreement then?" asked the President, hands clasped before him on his desk.

"Yes sir, if it were simply the Goa'uld, we'd have some significant problems but would feel that going to any particular group would not be in the best interests of our country," said Major Davis with a glance at the General beside him. "As it is - the covert and infiltrative nature of our other enemies makes it more than a simple American problem."

"So who are we bringing on board?" asked the President. He tried not to glance at the teenage girl who stood there, polearm held relaxed in her hands. Yet, if the reports he'd heard and pictures he'd seen had been correct - this girl was herself capable of destroying attacking spaceships. A foreign national, a living weapon, and a soldier of some ancient war - but also a teenage girl with a shy vulnerability who was holding her boyfriend's hand.

Her boyfriend the NINJA's hand.

Briefings around the White House were beginning to get a bit bizarre. Maybe he ought to get some SciFi writer as an advisor to help make sense of all this.

"Only those nations who can keep a secret, and whom we can trust - and even then only specific agencies," said the General. "We'll be meeting with representitives of those groups."

"Only those countries who can be trusted and can keep a secret?" asked the President, a bit of disbelief showing. "Are there any?"

"Yes sir," said Major Davis. "There are those who are already involved - Great Britain and Japan. The Russians know something is up, and they've nosing about in Japan and a few places in the United States the past week. Sometimes the German government isn't too good with keeping secrets, but their agencies are very good at some details. Then there's the secret service of the Vatican, which has also been nosing about."

"The Vatican has spies?" The President blinked at that. "I didn't know they had a secret service."

"Yes sir, they deny they have one publically, but then they've been at it for over six hundred years so their spy branch is very experienced." The General checked a clipboard. "We've decided against several countries, simply because of track records. Either their record of cooperation with us is low, their record of keeping secrets is not good, or their statements in recent months indicate that they'd go public with the information just to spite the US."

The President sat back in his chair, regarding the ceiling briefly. "You know, before the Stargate Project was briefed to me, and before I toured Area 51 - it was a shrinking planet. Communication and travel times are continually improving. A century ago, it could take months to reach Africa and now for practical purposes it is a neighbor. Now with THIS sort of thing, everything has shrunk again."

The two military and the two teenagers, one of whom was still puzzling over a language he clearly didn't speak that well, waited as the President considered something.

Finally he let out a deep breath. The President nodded. "Very limited cooperation. The Brookings Report and all the other data about the potential effects on society have to be weighed with the harm this could cause if these other aliens find us."

"Not IF, sir, WHEN," said Major Davis. "Everyone has been completely clear on that. Just the fact that these 'Star Sailors' came here in the past will bring these others here. Even if we deported all those currently able to access special abilities - these others would follow the trail here."

"And since these others are able to eliminate the girls like Miss Saturn here," pointed out the President, "they have to have attacks which either outpower them or exploit weaknesses in their defense. Yes, I read Professor Tomoe's report on that sort of thing. Unfortunately we don't know what weakness they target, otherwise we could work out a defense."

"Yes, that was the Professor's thinking," acknowledged the General. "However, there has been a new development since that report."

"General," the President said, tapping a folder. "It looks to me like every day has a new development hitting the fan."

"I can see where you'd get that impression," admitted the General.

"May I hope it's good news?" asked the President.

The General put a report on the table that included a set of photographs paperclipped to the front.

The President of the United States looked through the photographs first, then glanced at the girl with the polearm. "Does she have one?"

"Not yet, sir," acknowledged the General.

"Hmmmm," said the President, scanning the report. He was interrupted as a phone began blinking for his attention. "Now what would General Hammond be wanting?"

* * *

Hotaru tried to keep from yawning. Something had been up. Something important. She'd been rushed here, with Ranma who looked even MORE tired, and had had to demonstrate her transformation three times to the guy. She was glad she didn't twirl around naked the way her friend Minako did, as that would have been TOO embarassing for words.

One of her friends in the Marines had handed off some little gadget that that nice BOLO had come up with that was apparently very enthusiastically received by most of the people involved in the SGC even if it was a really new item. Maybe they'd gotten to accept things more after the medscanner, but this new device didn't look nearly so special.

It was just one of those headset things with the microphone and earpiece, and it had a little wire that hooked onto the little box you clipped to a belt. They called it a Nearly Universal Translator, and apparently it came loaded with dozens of Earth languages. All you had to do was set it for Japanese, and anytime someone said something - you heard it in Japanese.

As she understood it, there was a plan for a Nearly Universal Translation Subtitler - a pair of glasses you could put on that would instantly make subtitled translations - including written languages that the glasses were pointed at, but at that point everyone had started making jokes she hadn't understood regarding the NUTS and people getting ahold of this new device.

Ranma DID yawn a few times, but a gentle squeeze on his hand was enough to keep him awake.

Hotaru tried not to blush or fidget from holding hands. She'd been around Americans enough that it was just holding hands after all.

* * *

_Chik-chum whirrrrrt whirrrrrt chaka-chaka_

The engineer wiped her forehead with a rag, looking proudly at her creation. "Eureka!"

One of the other engineers looked up from his work. "Eureka?"

"Assembly line one is a 'go'," declared Daisy, throwing an arm back to gesture at the device.

"Well, it's not going to take long with the AI installed and telling us what to fix and where," said the other engineer. He followed by muttering something about 'eureka' not being appropriate.

"You're busting my groove," said Daisy. "Here you are, on a planet named Xeno light-years from Earth, rebuilding an alien factory on an alien world and producing... say, what the heck are we building here anyway?"

The Carter android looked up. "Droids."

"Like you and Janet?" asked Daisy, a bit disappointed that the only male present was apparently gay. He wasn't paying a bit of attention to her - not to say that she wanted that sort of complication but it would be nice to have the option.

"We were thinking of that, but it's going to have to wait until much later before we can build those," said the Carter android. "What we've got in mind are something more mechanical looking, not so intelligent, but able to go out and defuse bombs and the like."

"We call them 'peebos'," said the AI.

* * *

"What exactly are we doing here?" Lulu asked as she looked out the front windshield of the tel'tak.

Rikku glanced up at her. "It's really simple. We have to know what's out here, right?"

"I get that much...."

"Well, since we don't exactly have a lot of ships to go around, we have to make due with what we have. And in this case...."

"We get stuck with this sort of work."

"Exactly."

"You know," Yuna put in, "we could always take it as a good thing that we're doing something that we won't get shot at while we do it."

The blonde swivelled around and gave the singer hopeful a flat look. "You ready to bail on all the fighting?"

"Of course not. I just don't want to see any of you hurt."

"Figured as much."

"If you already knew the truth, then why mention it?" Lulu asked.

"Because it needed to be said. Besides, I'm not really looking to see any of us get shot myself."

"We could still die from boredom," Wakka said as he came over to the women. "I mean, we have been finding lots of rocks, and not much else."

Just then, there was a beep from the ship's computer.

"Looks like I spoke too soon."

"What is it?" Yuna asked.

Lulu raised a brow. "Other than a big hole in the ground."

"But it looks so regular...."

"That's because it isn't a hole," Rikku told her, jabbing at the controls. "It's a tunnel."

"A tunnel. What does that mean?"

"Give me a moment here.... Smooth features in regular patterns.... Evidence of planned structure.... Machinery present...."

"What is it?"

"If I didn't know better, and I don't, I'd say that we just found a mine on our moon here," the blonde drawled.

"Naquadria?" Wakka asked.

"Can't tell right now, but once we check out the ore, we'll see if that's the case."

"Wouldn't that be what they'd dig for?"

"Who knows what they'd come to get. For all we know, they could have been after some other material. But even then, that might be something that we can use...."

"Then this is something to report in about," Yuna commented.

"For sure."

* * *

It was supposed to be a fairly normal day at Stargate Command. Even with politicians around, and magical girls being their allies, they still had work to do. That meant that they had to send out teams to check out the various worlds that the Stargate could lead them to, so that they could find technology to help protect the planet, and to find allies who could help them create a better relationship with the galaxy at large.

The alarms going off meant that the day wasn't so normal after all.

Seated at the computer station overlooking the Gate room, Harriman tappped quickly at the keyboard in front of him. "Incoming traveller, incoming traveller, offworld activation, closing the iris."

"Clear the ramp," Siler called out.

"There's no-one scheduled to come back for 24 hours," Hammond commented. "Who is it?"

"It's SG-1's remote access code, sir," the sergeant reported.

"What? They just went through!"

"Opening the iris, stand by."

The iris opened, but things were not going as usual. Energy was crackling around the the Stargate, and the various equipment attached to it was sparking. By every indication, it was overloading, which was obviously not a good sign of what was to come.

"Sir, the 'gate is showing twice the power as normal, and it's increasing!" Walter told him.

Right then, Jackson and Teal'c came flying through the Gate to land haphazardly on the ramp, which wasn't exactly how they were supposed to use the Ancient device.

Hammond, concerned, headed straight down towards where the two men had fallen, and knelt next to Daniel. "He's unconscious...."

"System overload!" Harriman called out as the Stargate cut out. "The wormhole is disengaged!"

"Get a medical team in here now! Teal'c, are you alright?"

Looking over at the base commander, Teal'c gave a slow nod. "I am."

"Where are Colonel O'Neill and Captain Carter?"

"They could not have been more than two meters behind us. I do not know." Not liking the answer, but unable to blame the former First Prime for not having an explanation, the General merely helped him up, and wondered about what could have happened to his two missing officers.

* * *

Wincing a bit, Samantha pulled herself up off the spot that she'd been laying on to look around where she was. The colonel was laying right next to her, but didn't look like he was awake at all. Then she gazed at the surroundings, but there wasn't much to see, given that they were in what looked like a bubble in ice. Almost at one end of the cavern was a Stargate frozen into walls.

Taking off her helmet, she recognized that this was not a good situation to be in.

* * *

"We've almost replaced all the superconductive interface elements, Sir," said Captain Tsubasa. "The old ones all melted. It's going to take some time to test load them though."

"Just tell me the minute we can get send a probe through," ordered General Hammond.

"That'll be 24 hours, General," said Siler, not looking up from his welding.

"Captain Carter and Colonel O'Neill do not have that long," solemnly intoned Teal'c.

"I'll give you half that," said the General.

"No sir, it doesn't work that way. 24 hours is the best I can do," said Siler.

A robot dog watching the work cleared his throat.

"Yes, Mister Yorkie?" asked the General, having to remind himself that the BOLO-supplied agent was not a real dog.

The thick Cockney accent made it a little difficult to understand the dog. "Well, lad, if I sacrifice me self-repair nanites, we may be able to cut the time by four hours. I be a bit reluctant to do so as it be kinda like cutting off a human immune system to be doin' that, but seein' as how we be in a pinch."

The General nodded. "Any time we can cut from that figure is appreciated. Carry on, Mister Siler, Mister Yorkie."

* * *

Biting her lip, Captain Carter began setting Colonel O'Neill's leg.

"AArgh! Oh god... Ah!" reacted Colonel O'Neill.

"Okay," said Carter. "I think it's set."

"You THINK it's set?" asked Colonel O'Neill, understandably apprehensive about this.

Carter held up the medscanner. "Something jarred loose when we hit. Using other methods, I'm positive. All we have to do is put a splint on it and you'll be as good as new."

"The more complicated the mechanism, the more prone to breaking down," said the Colonel. "Just take it easy, Doctor."

"Wrong kind of doctor, I'm afraid," said Carter.

"You wouldn't think jagged bone digging into raw nerve endings would hurt," said the Colonel, "but it does."

"Sorry, Sir," said Carter, "but I've never done this before in my life. Is this your first broken bone?"

"Ah, ah, no. This would be, uh, nine - if you count skull fractures."

"How did you manage that?" asked Carter.

"Little parachuting mishap over the borders of Iran and Iraq, in 1980... uh."

"Okay, this is gonna hurt Sir," said Captain Carter.

* * *

Ranma yawned. Guys in dark suits coming to haul him out of early morning practice. Then he and Hotaru did that meeting with that President guy. Then this.

"Any idea what's going on?" asked Minako, hoping she didn't have to pay for her plane.

Hotaru nodded. "There's going to be a summit. Agents of world leaders gathered for the purposes of sharing intelligence."

"We're... going to meet world leaders?" asked Usagi, twitching. For the first time in her life, she wanted to be in a math test.

"They're disguising our identities?" guessed Ami.

"We'll be given warning before we meet them so we can transform, and they'll only use our Sailor identities," explained Hotaru.

"Ach, laddie," said a Scottish Terrier. "D'ye think ye kin keep from yawning in front of these yahoos. They not be the sort to be keepin' with that sort of thing."

"Fine, fine," said Ranma. "I'm catching a nap."

"What's with the dogs?" asked Melissa.

"We're ambassadors," said the Great Dane.

"Indeed," chimed in an English Bulldog.

"Ambassadors? Talking dogs?" asked Melissa Mao.

"Quite," said the bulldog. "Or perhaps technical attaches would be a more appropriate phrase."

"Advisors?" asked Ami, looking curious at the idea.

"Aye lassie," put in the terrier. "The deal we be helping to broker contains the restriction that we not be helpin' the lads to build new systems, but to repair and operate existing systems."

"In other words, paranoia and caution persist even when survivability is a question," put in the Great Dane.

"What's with Jupiter?" asked Minako.

"She has a little trouble with airplanes," said Usagi. "If she has to go, she requests this shot of something but then-"

"She seems to have some side effects with the sedative," explained Ami, "between the time she's given the shot and she falls asleep."

"I'll say," mumbled Usagi, trying not to smile and failing.

"Well, at least she didn't sing 'I'm a little teapot' this time," said Ami.

At that point Makoto began snoring.

"I'm just sorry they didn't let me take my Venus A-10 Aerospace Bomber!" proclaimed Venus.

"I be thinking that the lads didn't want to have a warplane accompany us," said the terrier. "Enough attention focussed on this little get together as is, eh lass?"

"So who's attending? Anyone I know?" asked Usagi.

"What about Sailor Mars?" asked Hotaru. "She's not here."

"She had a fit about military involvement and governmental interference," said Melissa. "So we left her at the airport."

* * *

A half-hour previous:  
"I am definitely not trusting any of these government lapdogs!" said Rei. "We are not military and we are not going to just blindly accept orders. I refuse to have anything to do with this!"

"That's right, you tell them," said Luna.

"Okay," said Melissa, pushing a button on the doors.

_Whishhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhht thunk!_

"Uhm," said Rei, looking at the doors that had just closed. "This is where you negotiate. Make a counteroffer."

"You don't need them," said Luna. "The Sailor Senshi operate with the best interests of the Silver Millenium at heart. They should be taking orders from YOU, not making so-called suggestions."

"The plane's taking off?" asked Rei. "Hey! Hey! Wait a minute."

"Where's Artemis?" asked Luna, noticing a white cat was missing.

* * *

back to present:  
"Ahhhh, norwegian kippers," said Artemis with a sigh of contentment. "Most tasty."

"You're gonna gain weight," said Minako.

"Do I bother you when you're going after cake?" asked Artemis.

"Yes," said Minako.

"Oh. Good point," said Artemis. "Fish is better for you than cake."

"No, I don't think it'll be anyone we recognize," said Ami. "After all, we'll just probably be meeting the delegates of some delegates."

"Think we'll be able to get some photos?" asked Minako.

"I doubt it," said Artemis, between whisker-licks. "Secret meetings and all."

* * *

"Definitely not System Lord manufacture," said Auron, who was old enough to have seen quite a lot.

"No," agreed Wakka. "Unless it was that 'Ra' - I'm told he did things a bit differently."

"No, all the System Lords use essentially the same style. It makes it easier when they conquer each other's territories, or when they trade off items. Parts and people are interchangeable to them," disagreed Auron.

"It couldn't be the wolfmen could it?" asked Lulu. "Did they even need such things?"

"They were nanotechnologists," said Tidus. "You've got to start with the raw materials and there may have been stuff they couldn't make like that."

"Not a lot of their stuff survived on Refuge," said Wakka. "What kinda stuff would we look for that would... oh."

Looking at the statue, Yuna agreed. "Oh. Very definitely."

"So we know who made it, now we just need to find out what they mined here. No sign of life support," reported Tidus. "Since we don't have spacesuits, we may have to give Colorado a call."


	20. Chapter 20: Marller and Mercury

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Chapter 20: Marller and Mercury

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Daniel said as he tried to not wince. "We have no idea as to where Jack and Sam are, and we can't use the Gate for a while yet."

"That is exactly the case, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c confirmed.

"Swell. What _is_ being done to rescue them?"

"In a few hours a probe will be sent back in an attempt to determine their fate. Fortunately, the preparations for that device do not have the same sort of effort that in needed to repair the Stargate. Though there have been opinions given about the need for a better method for locating those lost on other worlds, including one who remarked on this being a reason for identification beacons to be implanted into the bodies of personnel heading off world."

"I don't suppose that the person was reminded that for such a thing to work, we'd have to have a general idea of where they are, and that would mean knowing which planet they went to," the archeologist muttered.

"General Hammond mentioned that to the individual. That person was looking most chastened."

"I should hope so. After all, we need real ideas to help Jack and Sam. It's entirely possible that they're in a bad situation, and need us to get to them as soon as we can."

"Indeed."

* * *

O'Neill looked around at the cave that Carter and he were in, and gave a grunt of affirmation. "We might be able to climb out of here. You might, anyway." "What?" Carter asked, having been busy looking over their a bit more directly.

"I said, you might be able to climb outta here."

"Colonel, I've found it!" she cried out from where she'd been digging on top of an ice block.

"Found what?"

"The DHD, I figure the glacial flow must have separated the Stargate from its Dial Home Device," the blonde told him, sweeping snow away, "but it looks like it might be intact."

"Ah, God. Oh. Can we dig it out?" Jack asked as he started climbing over the block to join her.

"Even if it doesn't work, we can use the chopped ice to melt drinking water."

"Alright." Sam nodded at him and started chipping away... until she saw him clutching his side. "What's wrong with your chest?"

"I think I cracked a rib too."

"Why didn't you say something?"

"I was afraid you'd try to put a splint on it. I'll be fine," he told her as he pulled out his knife and started joining her in the chipping.

"I've been thinking about where Daniel and Teal'c might be...."

"Yeah?" "So far, I count three possible explanations. One, Daniel misdialled and they're here, somewhere we haven't found."

"I don't see 'em," Jack murmured, his voice saying how likely he thought that idea was.

"Right. Two, Daniel didn't misdial but for some reason the Stargate malfunctioned during transit. Don't ask me how, I haven't figured that part out yet. Anyway, they got sent back to Earth, but for some reason we got sent here."

"What's three?"

"Three," she said in an even voice. "The Stargate malfunctioned. We got sent to this planet, Daniel and Teal'c got sent to another one."

"What's four?"

"There is no four."

"It's after three," he told in a fairly dry tone.

"Not this time, Colonel."

"Alright, we'll assume they made it back to Earth. They'll start sending search parties."

"To where?"

"Here, I hope."

"Where would they begin? They have no idea where we are. With all the possible Stargates a random search could easily take ten years!" Carter blurted, her voice filled with the height of doubt.

"Not if they look here first."

"Even if all SG teams started searching right now, the mathematical probability of them even...."

"Captain!"

"I think too much," she ruefully acknowledged.

"Finally."

"Sir?"

Turning his head to look her straight in the eye, Jack kept his expression as serious as possible. "I don't mean to be nasty or anything about this Carter, but trust what I'm about to say. Relax. You don't have to think through everything."

"I don't...."

"You do so, and even if we die here.... _especially_ if we die here, I want you to take it easy. Not everything has to be taken so seriously. If you do, then you wind up second guessing everything, and that'll kill you when you need to move quick. So relax. If this is the end, I'd kind of prefer to not have to have you wringing your hands and worrying, got me?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Now, we'll be getting rescued any moment. You'll see."

"At least it's possible that Daniel and Teal'c are on some other world," she allowed.

"See? Think positive."

"We don't know where they are right now though...."

"For all we know, they could be back at the SGC, looking over Walter's shoulder as they try to find us, sipping their coffee. Now, less thinking, and more working," he told her, as they resumed chipping.

* * *

"Charging circuit MX43 at twenty percent. One hundred," Siler murmured as he looked at a readout in the control room. "Circuit is holding, reset and standby. She's all yours, General."

"Well done, Sergeant...." Hammond told his subordinate.

"Couldn't have done it without our little friend."

"Thanks to you both then," the General responded and turned to the technician at the dialing computer controls. "You heard the man."

Harriman nodded and started up the dialing sequence. "Yes, sir. chevron one encoded."

"SG-3 and I are ready and awaiting your orders, General," Teal'c commented as he stepped up towards the base commander.

"I won't authorize this rescue mission unless the probe sends back the right pictures, Teal'c," Hammond answered.

"Chevron two encoded," Walter called out.

"All defense teams stay alert. These hostiles might have both our addresses and our transmitter code."

"Chevron three encoded."

Daniel frowned from where he stood with his teammate. "You don't actually think they'd give up the transmitter codes to the enemy, do you?"

"Not willingly, no," the general said, letting the possibilities of why that would be the case hanging in the air.

"Chevron four encoded," Harriman reported.

"I do not believe they would do so, even under the duress of torture," the former First Prime commented.

"Chevron five encoded."

"Teal'c, in the event we find no enemy activity on the other side, you will coordinate with Major Castleman on the rescue mission," Hammond instructed.

"Chevron six encoded."

The Jaffa nodded. "I understand." "Chevron seven is locked," the technician told those around him, and the familiar growing light and rush came from the Gate. It settled down into its expected 'glowing puddle' look, and the MALP trudged up the ramp, and through the Stargate. "The probe should reach the Stargate at P4A-771 in five seconds. Four, three, two, now."

As soon as he said that, the monitors showed the MALP's view of the planet."

"No sign of Jack and Sam, but no evidence they got into a firefight either," Jackson mused.

Almost as if his words were a signal, an energy blast slammed into the probe right near the camera.

"They were waiting for us! Close the iris! Disengage the Stargate," Hammond ordered. "SG-3 stand down. The rescue mission is scrubbed."

"General!" Daniel called out in dismay.

* * *

One wouldn't have expected a group of teenaged girls to look so serious, but it was obvious that the Senshi were not about to dismiss what was going on. If nervousness could be personified, then it was in their forms. None of them seemed comfortable, but it also looked like none of them thought that running away would get them anything.

So, when the guard opened the door for them, they filed into the room with only the sounds of footwear touching the floor making any noise. On one side of the room sat a bunch of people wearing suits as they sat at a set of tables set up in a horseshoe style arrangement, with the girls at the center of the semicircle. Most of the people were male, with a few females, all of whom were looking at the newcomers. Some were openly surprised by the sight of girls in what amounted to school uniforms crossed with cheerleader uniforms, others looked to be taking measure of them, and at least one man was almost hiding the fact that he was leering at the sight of long and shapely legs in short skirts.

This did not look like it would be just another day at the office for anyone.

* * *

The Sailor Senshi were a little nervous (with the exception of Sailor Jupiter - who was a lot groggy) as the other people filed in.

"Oh my word! Sailor V?" said someone with a British accent. "My goodness gracious!"

Oddly enough, being recognized seemed to relax Sailor Venus some small amount.

"Yes, I see," said the Japanese representitive. "I can understand the British presence here, as they have a history of being an ally of the United States. I can understand our own involvement - as we are already quite involved due to events occurring within Japan recently. Some of the other choices I am less sure of."

"I myself am wondering what these Americans have planned that requires confidentiality of this level, and how it involves figureskaters," said one of those others.

"Sailor V, if you want to 'Crescent Beam' him, we'd understand," said the British fellow.

"Princess Diamond?!" asked Sailor Moon, pointing at one of the women present.

"Ah, Sailor Moon-san," said the princess, adjusting her glasses.

"Now, laddies," said a dog, extending a holographic picture display. "We need to get the basics out so we all understand each other."

* * *

"Soups on," said Colonel O'Neill.

"Just a little more," said Carter. "I'm almost through."

"Come on now, you don't want it to get cold," chided the Colonel.

"I didn't know you could cook," said Carter.

"I can't, but my melted ice is to die for," said the Colonel.

"Thank you. Sir, maybe I should have another look at you," said Carter, an idea beginning to percolate.

"No, I'm fine. Eat."

"I've been thinking about how the Stargate might have malfunctioned," said Carter, trying NOT to think about something else.

"Yeah?" asked the Colonel, who would be getting a chill if he wasn't already in a glacier.

"Well, we don't totally understand how it works, but the theory we have so far is that the 'gate creates an artificial wormhole, that somehow transfers an energised matter stream in one direction along an extra-dimensional conduit. I think the matter stream between Stargates got redirected, kind of like a lightning bolt jumping from one point to another in mid-strike. Now, I figure it had to have been the attack on P4A-771. The 'gate itself was probably struck by enough energy during the firefight to influence the direction of the matter stream before we reached the other side. Colonel?"

"There are times when I really wish we could get Melbourne's mysterious technobabble translator," said the Colonel.

"What I'm saying is, we must have emerged through a Stargate relatively close to Earth in the 'gate network, somewhere between P4A-771 and Earth. Now, if the SG rescue teams reach the same conclusion, it could significantly reduce their search." Carter let out a deep breath. She was NOT thinking about trying to redirect the energy cells from the zat guns and using them to activate Colonel O'Neill's transformation. At least she was TRYING not to think about that.

"That's good news," said the Colonel, feeling something uncomfortable in the air.

"Yeah," said Carter. "Sir? Something I wanted to ask you about. When the Tollans were leaving, there was something odd about what Colonel Maybourne said."

"Ah, you picked up on that," said Jack.

Samantha Carter thought back. "He said something about the fight on that island and that he felt better and side-effects."

"He was saying that basically he was being watched and was in danger of being replaced, but that he was going to be OK as long as he kissed the proper buttocks," said Jack.

"Ah," said Samantha Carter. Sounded like Washington in a nutshell.

* * *

"So it begins," said Colonel Maybourne. "I need you to keep me informed, but nobody can know I'm in this particular loop. You'll need to use the Armes Agenda."

"Tricky," said the old man cleaning his windshield. "Begging the Colonel's pardon, but the individuals getting into play now are the biggest sharks around. They've gotten where they are by being the nastiest and most underhanded people available."

"Hence my working on a shadow corps, people I can trust to do the right thing," said Maybourne, not looking up from his newspapers. "I dropped a cigarette lighter behind the counter. Flash memory stick. Password is the first name of that girl we met in Panama."

"I'll let the others know through the usual means," said the old man, checking the tires now. "Hmph. Right front is down about ten pounds."

"Driving in the desert, it's that heat," admitted Maybourne.

* * *

"Uhm, guys," said Tidus.

"What is it?" asked Wakka.

"Anyone order a really big spaceship?" asked Tidus, pointing.

"How very interesting," said Auron.

"So what should we do?" asked Yuna.

"We should continue exploring these mines," said Auron. "We're not going to be able to do anything about a ship that big anyway."

* * *

This was it. This was what she had sought for so long.

That it resembled an old bottle of tabasco sauce was entirely beyond the point.

Marller had to find a quiet space to unleash it now. The Senbei Program which would DOOM this pitiable little mudball.

Holding the bottle up, she marvelled that something so small and inocuous looking could be it.

Opening it up at that 'SGC' seemed the most fitting. So many gadgets to go boom, after all.

* * *

"Here we are, the planet 'Refuge'," said Urd. "Population of only a few thousand at the moment."

"We are being hailed," said Thor, sounding mildly surprised.

"I thought we were cloaked," responded Urd.

"We are," said Thor. "I am responding. Ah, it is the BOLO."

"That tank?" asked Sailor Pluto, remembering that from the briefing in Washington.

* * *

Daniel Jackson knew that he wasn't a military genius, or the sort of scientist who could work on the Gate itself, but that didn't mean that he wasn't about to help out. He had been trained to find connections between things, and he had a pretty good practical knowledge of the use of the Stargates. Besides, one could not travel around with Sam Carter and not pick something up. So, that was why he was currently looking over the glass interplanetary map in the conference room.

Of course, as he was not alone, it meant that he'd have to actually speak to make some sense. "Okay, so if they are not there, and they are not here...."

"It is possible that they might have perished within the wormhole," Teal'c reminded him, obviously wishing to not have to state the obvious.

"Yeah. In which case they're gone. I know, I thought of that. But if they are alive, if there's the least remote possibility that this malfunction sent them to another Stargate...."

"Was it not Captain Carter who deduced the possible combinations of Stargate symbols numbered in the millions?"

"Well, we have to narrow it down," he answered with a sigh.

* * *

As there wasn't much else to do, Carter and O'Neill continued to try to chip at the ice on the DHD.

"Whoa," she murmured as she saw what she'd revealed. "Colonel. A serpent guard."

"Yeah," O'Neill answered simply.

"I guess he didn't make it." "Ya think?"

* * *

Despite having gained more company in the form of the general and their head technician, he still stared a lot at the glass map. "Okay, this is P4A-771, this is Earth. Now, the Stargate shut itself down just after Teal'c and I came through."

"There was an energy surge," Hammond put in.

"Right. But what would that have done to the wormhole itself?"

Siler looked totally confused. "I have no idea.

"Could it just disappear?"

"No, I don't think so, Sir. It would have to discharge somewhere."

"Like, another Stargate?" Jackson asked.

"Yeah, maybe," Siler agreed, and turned to his superior officer. "Sir, it's all theoretical, but we think that Stargates are basically giant superconductors. Charged matter streams along lines of force between them."

"Positive to negative, like electricity. Right?"

"Except for the fact the whole trip happens outside our dimension, yeah, more or less."

"Okay, what if it jumped. Redirected itself here, or here, or anywhere along... here," Daniel commented, and pointed at the points in question as he mentioned them.

"You're suggesting we search all these worlds?" Hammond asked.

"Well, at least we've narrowed an entire galaxy of Stargates down to a handful of possibilities."

"Assuming you're right, why haven't they used that Stargate to come back on their own?"

"Teal'c and I were flung out of this 'gate at this end so fast I don't even remember hitting the ramp. Now, they could be badly hurt, in which case we will not have to search far from the Stargates themselves. I think we owe it to them to try," Jackson stated.

* * *

"Are you telling us that our world is in danger and our only line of defense are these little girls?" asked one delegate.

Major Paul Davis gave a rueful nod. "Unfortunately, they have been thrust into a position of great power and responsibility."

"And yet they haven't thought to abuse this power? I mean, if they were so powerful, then they might even want to take over the world."

"I assure you that we know how to handle any issues that might come up."

"But can you tell me that they will never be looking for the chance to do something wrong?"

"Why would we want to do that?" Sailor Moon asked. "That'd be really bad, and mean. And it's how those mean guys act...."

Each and every one of the delegates stared at her guileless expression and wondered how she stayed so pure....

"And so she won't be a 'troublemaker' any time soon," Major Davis told them.

* * *

Having uncovered the DHD, O'Neill glanced over it, and wondered what all that work was far. You IDed the seventh symbol yet? "Yeah, this one has to be the point of origin. I've never seen it before. No.... batteries.... guess it's now or never," Sam told him.

"I've always preferred 'now' to 'never'."

"Here goes," Carter murmured, and tapped in the address. "Dammit!"

"You dialled the right address?"

"Yes! It has to be something as simple as the control interface. If we can dig down to the panel on the DHD I can fix it."

"Negative."

"Sir, we've gotta keep trying!"

"Of course we do. But we've been awake for a very long time. It'll be there in the morning." He bent over in agony. "God...."

"What about you?"

"I told you we're gonna get out of here. It's just gonna take longer than we thought."

She nodded, and didn't sound convinced when she spoke. "Yes, sir."

"Captain...?"

"Yes, sir."

He nodded to himself.

* * *

Sailor Pluto had faced adversaries without qualm before. This was not an adversary, and yet in some ways it was intimidating in a way that a yoma or Dark General was not.

"My my, just wait till Skuld meets you," said Urd. "She's a bit of a tech-otaku if I understand the phrase correctly."

The BOLO continued to scan, feeling a bit of distrust directed towards the woman who was in the Senshi costume. Still, she likely was NOT one of the old Enemy. "What are your intentions on this planet?"

"Direct and to the point, eh?" asked Urd.

"I am as I was designed," acknowledged the BOLO.

"Well, good enough," said Urd. "I'm merely showing one of our new acquaintances around various planets that we've come to associate with. Particularly I wanted to show her what we're up against regarding Galaxia."

"Galaxia?" asked the BOLO.

"The one who took down the race who built you," supplied Urd offhandedly. "She and those she's essentially killed and resurrected as her slave-soldiers."

The BOLO rumbled to life, bringing extra power online and more resources available. A name. He finally had a name for the enemy. "I see. So you are informing this Sailor of this other Sailor?"

"It's always nice to have as much information as is available, particularly when the fight is unavoidable, wouldn't you agree?" said Urd.

"Oh yes, quite," said the BOLO. "I've just gotten in some video from Zeno. I'll pop it up on that monitor."

Sailor Pluto had a little problem tearing her attention away from the mile-long tank with the whopping big guns, but this WAS apparently what she was here for.

* * *

"The dogs are robots?" asked one of the delegates.

"The girls are superheroes?" asked another delegate.

"The boy is a ninja?" asked another delegate.

"I feel like I've come in during the second season and have missed an awful lot, and now I'm having trouble just figuring out the synopsis episode," complained still another delegate.

"Other than robot dogs whose backs open up to reveal holographic displays," said a twitching delegate, "do we have any proof of any of this..."

Ranma smirked and vanished.

"Crescent Beam!" said Venus, pointing at a wall hanging. _ZOT!_

"O-kay," said the skeptic. "Still, this is a bit much to take in."

"You can reappear, Mister Saotome," said Melissa, addressing the table on which snacks had been placed.

Ranma laughed a little embarassedly as he faded in. "Too predictable, huh?"

Many Senshi nodded at that.

"We're coordinating some of the efforts multinationally under the codename MITHRIL," said Melissa Mao, passing out CDs. "The name referring to a metal out of fantasy lore that is stronger than steel. The disc contains a method of accessing a website which will help coordinate efforts. Your K-9 units will also be able to access this site, and both methods contain encryption methods worked out by some of our AI experts. Despite the USA being involved at all levels, they're allowing other countries access because of the nature of the enemy and because some of the extraterrestrial allies they're courting are pretty insistent on a greater cross-section of Earth's populace being involved."

"Extraterrestrial allies like - ?" Princess Diamond made a gesture in the direction of the Senshi.

"Among others," said Melissa. "The K-9 units will act as technical advisors where necessary, as access terminals when needed, and as bodyguards if required. They'll also serve as demonstrations to your leaders when you need to bring them into the loop - as this IS a bit much to accept all at once."

"So what is our role in this alliance?" asked the Brit.

"Are you already in then?" asked another delegate.

"We've already gotten involved," said the British delegate. "Her Majesty's Secret Service has been keeping tabs on Sailor V since she appeared in Britain, and though Danburite has been defeated - there remained a few loose ends we needed to clip. Besides, Her Majesty does enjoy reading up on the latest Sailor V stories."

"The Queen reads about me?" asked Sailor Venus, who hadn't ever thought about such a thing before. At least not much.

"Oh yes," said the Brit, sounding especially dry in tone. "She's quite the fan."

"Oh," said Sailor Venus, a bit overwhelmed.

"To answer your question," said Melissa. "First we're going to give you plans for the medscanner, and three other scanning devices. One is to detect enemies who are using a 'cloaking' technology, another is to find people with a compatibility to the Ancient technology, the third is to find those compatible with this 'Silver Millenium' technology."

"(I don't think my translator thingie is working,)" complained Sailor Moon.

Melissa reached over and turned the device on.

* * *

Marller floated by the various soldiers, ducked unseen past barriers, darted past a small Yorkshire Terrier.

Unnoticed by her, the small Yorkshire Terrier stiffened, and he moved to get a clear view of what looked like empty corridor.

#Wireless connection enabled.  
Accessing system.  
Alarm:Off.  
Changing...  
Alarm:Silent.  
Type: Intruder Alert.#

* * *

Siler stared at the display. "Uhm. General? We've got a problem."

The General glanced at the display. "Activate the trace system."

Siler flipped a couple of switches on recently added equipment. "Bringing up cameras. Nothing on visual. Positive contact. Something is displacing air in an empty corridor consistent with a moving object. Ultraviolet high frequencies also reporting intermittent contact."

"Remind me to send a thank you letter to our large friend on Refuge," said the General thoughtfully. "Keep tracking it, see if we can find out where it's going."

"We'll need a weapon which can be used against invisible attackers," mused Siler as he tracked. "Something that doesn't damage the walls and equipment that could be nearby."

"Unfortunately, we don't know what tear gas or other compounds will do to aliens," said Harriman, seeing where this was going. "Especially if they're prepared with environmental safeguards."

"Have a couple of soldiers armed with zat'nik'tel ready when we know where our intruder is going," said the General.

"Most likely, the armory," said Harriman. "Whatever it is, it's unfamiliar with the base's layout."

* * *

Walking down the hallway, Tessa found herself lost in the memories of how out of place she'd felt from time to time. She was rather young for someone who not only worked in the military, but had some authority as well. With her shy demeanor, it tended to be something of a bother to get over those sorts of feelings. But she knew that she was rather lucky as well, as she was in a position to make the best of what she had to offer.

Besides, this way she got to have a chance to meet and be around Sosuke Sagara. He was such an asset to their work, and she knew that there were plenty of other groups who'd love to have him work for them. After all, Sosuke was so capable, strong, brave, and dedicated....

A light blush lit her cheeks as she came up to the door of the workshop that he'd been using. Knocking, she waited for a reply, and felt nervous. Nominally, she was just going there to check up on his efforts, but she did have her own personal reasons to check up on him.

But her focus on them went into a jumble when she heard his voice through the door. "Yes, who is it?"

"It's me, Mister Sagara...." she replied, and was quickly rewarded with the sound of traps being disconnected from the door before he opened the door and stood before her.

"Come in."

"Thank you. I hope that I'm not intruding."

"Of course not," he assured her.

"Oh?"

"I was simply working on continuing my work here.

"Made any progress?"

"Yes, I have. Look at this. A concept drawing for a computer unit dedicated to allow quick access to mission useful data."

"That would be useful...."

"I thought so too. And this is a special knife that uses the new materials to allow for a filament wire to be coiled inside the handle, allowing for more uses than normal ones."

"I see...."

"A quick kit for turning a hot plate into an explosive device, ready for both throwing and trap making."

Well, not everything that Sosuke made was all that useful. Of course, he was by no means an inventor, as he was raised to be a complete soldier, but she'd learned that he was quite skilled in thinking up new ways to deal with combat situations. Of course, that didn't come off so well in civilian company, but then she wasn't all that skilled in a lot of civilian things herself. That was why she'd arranged for an old workshop be put aside for him. It allowed for him to do something like a hobby, and he got to create the most interesting little devices.

But there was one fairly 'normal' thing that she wanted to try and do. "Say, Mister Sagara?"

"Yes, Ma'am?" he answered.

"I was thinking.... Um...."

"Yes?"

"I.... you.... Uh...."

"Hmm?"

"I.... We could...." she said, fidgeting terribly as she fought to keep looking him in the eye... until something in a corner caught her attention. "What is that?"

"You'll need to be more specific, ma'am."

She pointed. "That."

"Ah, yes. I garnered it recently, and think that it could be turned into something quite useful."

"You did?"

"That is affirmative."

"I see...." she murmured, uncertain as to how to handle things now. She could tell that she'd just ruined the mood, and was fairly sure that she wasn't going to get it back. As it was, she was going to be too occupied by his last idea to really think that she could really think about anything else at the moment.

"Anything else, ma'am?"

"What? No.... I'll be going now."

"Understood."

"And remember that you have to be ready for your main work...."

"Affirmative."

She nodded at him, and walked back into the hallway, still thinking about it. This was a bit of a new thing for him, but she hadn't thought that he would be interested in such things. That still left one question that she couldn't stop herself from asking.

"What is he going to do with a man sized Bonta-kun costume...."

* * *

This farce might have convinced the others, but there was one representative who wasn't all that thrilled by what was being shown. As far as he was concerned, this was merely a 'dog and pony' show to have something to show for their efforts. Who would take the idea of teenagers being counted on to protect the world seriously.

No, he was going to be part of the group made up of idiots and eye candy, so that this way he could keep an eye on them. This way, _his_ nation would be in a position to really handle this world properly. All that he had to do was to keep quiet until the moment would be right. The others could have their flashy 'powers' and skimpy outfits.

Steepling his hands in front of himself, he knew that he would be in this to handle the others' imaginings of alien abduction.

* * *

"Test results," said Kalenin, handing off a clipboard.

"Whoa," said Teletha. Her eyes had immediately caught one name and the accompanying score. "Kaname Chidori?"

"She tests positive for both the Ancient gene and the Silver Millenial aspect," pointed out Andrei Kalenin. "Most impressive, even if her academic background seems less inspiring."

"How are these coming along?" asked Andrei, looking over the mecha taking shape through the large plate-glass window.

"The REFLEX system still has some problems," confessed Teletha Tessarossa, "the M4 is a limited-use prototype and should be available for sale on the open market. The main use to us will be generating revenue and getting the bugs out of the production process. Ours will use a second-generation set of technologies, including the artificial muscles from Refuge."

"There may be a problem in that," said Andrei.

* * *

"What are they calling these... monsters," said Boris, a little shocked by what he was seeing.

"These are the prototypes of the Rk-89 'Shamrock' series," said Natasha. "Using technology supplied by THAT woman."

"I don't understand how anyone can trust THAT woman, Natasha-sweetest," said Boris. "Even Fearless Leader seems taken in by her."

"She wears tight leather and has a nice figure," said Natasha, well aware that an attractive woman could cause men's minds to fog up. "They may not be thinking with their right heads."

"Perhaps," admitted Boris. "You know, it's only fair that we steal technology from our dupes in the West. Traditional even. Making a literal deal with a self-proclaimed devil? I'm not so sure that this is a wise move."

* * *

"So what's the problem with this 'second generation'?" asked Andrei.

"The REFLEX system allows the movement of the operator to be translated directly to the artificial muscles of the vehicle," answered Teletha. "The various internal controls are for things that don't have a direct biological equivelant."

"Like changing frequencies on the radio," guessed Andrei.

"Right," said Teletha. "Unfortunately, that isn't sufficient to handle some of the built-in weapons and response systems and the consoles are getting crowded enough as it is."

"Voice activation," suggested Andrei.

"Excuse me?" asked Teletha.

"That's what that American, Maybourne I think his name is, has done. He put in various subsystem controls so that the pilot speaks something like 'Stunstick activate' to extend an electrified rod from a forearm housing," said Andrei. "I was wondering why he would do such a thing - now it seems obvious."

"I see," said Teletha, nodding. That DID make sense. Perhaps this Colonel Maybourne was technically gifted?

* * *

"No budget for a Blazing Sword?" sighed Colonel Maybourne. "Oh well. How about an anti-aircraft cannon?"

"Not the Blue Dragon again?" asked the financial officer.

"If we modify used construction equipment, we can more than halve the cost," pointed out Maybourne.

"There's still acquiring the naquadah in order to power the thing and you KNOW what the accuracy rate would be for supra-orbital targets," said the financial officer.

* * *

"Intolerable," mumbled Richard Mardukas, watching from the background. It was obvious to him. The innocent young girl who would be corrupted and played by that womanizing fiend! He certainly didn't deserve such attention!

Not that the commander had any romantic feelings of his own - if he had bothered to examine his own heart on such things he would have found a more fatherly concern involved regarding Tessa. If there was a negative emotion involved it was that he, being a proper Naval Officer, had never been involved in romance - teenage or otherwise.

Seeing only the thorns and problems that could arise, he smiled as he found a way to ensure that Teletha Tessarossa would be protected from Sosuke Sagara.

Sending Sagara off to guard a valuable potential recruit seemed like an ideal opportunity.

* * *

Marller slowed to a stop and checked. Yes, she was invisible. She couldn't be detected by any means she would expect these ape-descendents to come up with.

So the presence of guards in front of her should not be of concern to her. They couldn't see her, and she could shield herself from their primitive metal-pellet-firing weapons quite easily.

However, she was definitely getting the impression that SOMETHING was up. That...

A bulkhead had just closed to either side of her? Coincidence?

Marller stopped in midair, eyes narrowing. These were primitives, right? Stone knives and bearskins. Chemical explosion in a confined area to hurl metal pellets. These people were so primitive they probably still believed in spontaneous generation above the quark level.

They couldn't possibly-

_beep beep chiuuuuuuuu_

Marller dodged, uprating this world ever so slightly as far as danger went. "All right, come out Senbei! Master Of Destruction!"

* * *

"That's it," said General Hammond as the leather-clad demoness appeared and was pulling a stopper out of some container. "Fire at will, magnetically seal bulkheads, electric charge barrier."

Siler flicked a switch. "Yes sir. Generators online. Commencing 'Bughunt' Protocol."

* * *

"I am Senbe-" _chiuuuuuuuuu ZAP!_

"Eeep!" said Marller as she noticed a displeased six inch Senbei smouldering there in midair.

_chiuuuuuu ZAP! chiuuuuuu ZAP!_

Hit with two simultaneous zat'nik'tel attacks, Marller felt a bit woozy herself. She fled, Senbei tagging along behind her as the two went at highest speed.

_kzzzzzz-!_

"Senbei no like this place," said Senbei, returning to his containment but not before snapping his fingers. _snap!_

The power briefly went out. Leaving a smoke trail behind her, a slightly crispy Marller fled.

* * *

"Backup generators online," said Siler. "She's gone."

"What exactly happened?" asked General Hammond.

"She used Senbei, manipulating quantum states to the point of maximum odds of failure," said Skuld as she came in the doorway. "Uncertainty principle? Electron exists at all points of its orbit?"

"A sort of Murphy's Law thing," guessed Siler. "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."

"Yeah, that's Senbei. He's been around on Earth for awhile," said Skuld. "The Entropy Of The Universe tends towards maximum. Hmmm. What's this?"

"Oh, Daniel came up with the theory that since this IS the Ancient homeworld, and that the Stargate system started here, that maybe there was a second Gate on Earth, we were just looking over seismograph data-," began Siler.

"Well, duh," said Skuld. "The only way you'd be able to use it though is if you had a massive power fluctuation during an active wormhole, then the aperature would skip to the unused one. That was always one of the limitations of the Stargates - you couldn't have more than one active in a system at one time."

"Okay, so if that DID happen, hypothetically," said Siler, aware that the Vanir couldn't actively help them, "where do you suppose someone would end up?"

"Oh, probably here," said Skuld pointing at a map. "I'm going to look around and see if Marller is still around. You can't trust demons, you know."

"I wouldn't think so," agreed General Hammond, waiting until Skuld was gone before addressing Mister Siler. "Check seismographic data for the time frames involved on the Antarctic landmass."

"Already done sir," said Siler, pointing to a line on his screen.

* * *

It was only a matter of time until they both died, and Sam knew it. She was perfectly aware of the danger that they were in, and wasn't going to kid herself. If they stayed too long in that cavern, they'd both die, and even if they'd been in full health, they would have only longer to wait for the end. There were only two possibilities that would allow them to survive, and she didn't know when either would happen. Stargate Command was certainly searching for them, but with a galaxy's worth of Stargates to go through, even finding them would take time. But even if she went searching outside the cave, there was no guarantee that she would find someone in time to save the Colonel.

Pressing her lips together, she came up with an idea to help him, but she knew that he wasn't going to like it. "Sir, I have an idea."

"Well, that's part of the reason to have you around, Carter," Jack murmured, smirking slightly. "I mean, you _are_ the resident egghead, right?"

"I think so, sir."

"Good. Then, the idea?"

"It's actually a really quite simple concept. You see, I think that I can get a way to get you healed, _and_ help us get out of here," she told him with a smile of growing excitement.

"You can? How?"

"It won't be pretty.... Or maybe it will be."

His brows rose up a bit, and he tried to lift his head off the ice it was laying on. "Why don't I like the sound of that?"

"Got me."

"Hmmm.... In any case, anything would probably be better than having us be ice cubes. Do what you have to."

"Are you sure, sir?"

"I didn't think that I stammered, Carter. Just do it. Think of this as an order from your superior officer."

"Understood," the blonde answered, and started to pull out a screwdriver and a radio.

* * *

Pluto stared at the images with the sort of morbid fascination that any horrific site demanded. One could not look away, but at the same time, it was not something that one wanted to see. She had already gazed upon the evidence of these sorts of horrible crimes, and known what would have happened for those sorts of results, but this was a bit much for her.

"By everything that is holy...." she whispered to herself.

Urd gave a grim little snort. "You need holiness after this...."

"Chaos."

"I believe that I told you that she is removing chaos...."

"Yes, but look at it. They're not preserving order," the Senshi told the alien woman, finally able to gaze at something else. "Pure destruction. There are no rules, no end goals save elimination of the natives, and certainly no mercy. That is nothing but wholesale slaughter."

"I suppose so, but it could be the strictest kind of 'order', the kind that is utter stillness."

"Perhaps...."

"You don't sound convinced," the Vanir observed.

"I'm not sure about anything at the moment, save for two things. First, I know that the Senshi from my world would _never_ do anything like that. In fact, those girls would be the first ones to try to run to protect someone else."

"That does ease some concerns," the BOLO commented. "What about you? Would you stand back and let the attacking go unchecked?"

"I'd like to think that I'd actually plan before charging into battle."

"That tends to be the better path."

Thor gave her one of his inscrutable looks. "But what of the other item that you are 'sure' of?"

"I'm sure that I need a moment to sit down," Pluto admitted. "Seeing that... that... _massacre_ made me nauseous."

"That's understandable...." Urd allowed, glancing over at the scenes of bloody carnage still being displayed.

* * *

"I am being given a new assignment, sir?" Sosuke asked.

Richard Mardukas sat ramrod straight in his chair as he looked at the boy standing in front of his desk. "That is right, _Sargent_ Sagara. You don't have any problems with that, do you?"

"Sir, no, sir!"

"Good. Because starting with your arrival at the assigned area, it will be _your_ responsibility to protect Miss Kaname Chidori, to the best of your ability. You can do that, can't you?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" the teenaged soldier responded, trying desperately not to sweat as he saw the commander give him the sort of look that one got on Judgement Day.

"Excellent. Now, I assume that you will do this with your full and complete abilities, not allowing yourself to get distracted, even though you will have to be away from here for long periods of time. Am I understood...."

"Sir, yes, sir!"

"Then, are there any questions?"

"Sir, what will happen with the work that I was doing with Miss Tessarossa?"

"First off, you will call her by her appropriate rank," Mardukas barked, jumping to his feet like he wanted to jump over the desk and onto Sosuke's throat. "And second, she will continue to do the fine job that she has been doing so far! _You_, on the other hand, will not bother her with complaints, and simply do as you are ordered to, understood, Sargent Sagara?!"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

"Very good...."

* * *

"Okay, I can understand how this has healed me," Jack muttered, from a now seated position.

Sam gave a small smile, and waved her hand. "Accelerated healing rate."

"That I know. But there is one thing that escapes me."

"And that is...."

"How is _this_ the best idea that you could come up with?!" the colonel snarled, leaping to her feet so fast that her breasts bounced.

"It did save your life...."

"It turned me into a girl! Again!"

"Trust me," the blonde replied. "It could have been worse."

"'Worse'? Tell me. How could this be 'worse'?"

"Well, I had no way to be certain that this energy would trigger the transformation, and...."

"Yeah?"

"The power might have been too much, which would have totally fried your body, but the chances of that happening were totally remote."

Colonel O'Neill's full mouth parted slightly in shock, and she stared at her subordinate, who was now looking _very_ sheepish.

* * *

In one part of the world, helicopters flew out from a base in a very cold place to search another cold place for two intrepid adventurers.

In another part of that same world, two others were having somewhat less luck.

"That was unexpected," said Marller, literally licking her wounds on the roof of the warehouse.

"No really," said Senbei, out of his containment again and watching fascinated.

"You expected that sort of resistance?" asked Marller.

"No," said Senbei. "Just knew that they very very unhappy that Senbei do what he do here."

"How long have you been contained then?" asked Marller, thinking it might have been a recent development somehow.

"About eight thousand year, give or take," said Senbei.

"What? Their civilization isn't even that old," said Marller.

"Containment leaks," said Senbei. "Senbei able to make big big unhappy for planet for many many year. Senbei not do too much by himself, just make misery index rise when chance can play part."

"Uh huh," said Marller, not seeing how that could have had any effect on these primitives - much less detected by them.

"We not alone," said Senbei, noticing a shadow moving.

"It's just one of those 'dog' creatures they have here," said Marller. "I'll blast it." _FWOOM!_

"It dodge," pointed out Senbei.

"Luck," said Marller. _FWOOM!_ "Hmmmm." _FWOOOM!_ "What?!" _WHOOOMP!_

"It very spry," said Senbei.

_FWOOM! FWOOM!_"Now it has no place to go," said Marller. "Fried dog coming up."

Senbei looked at all the fires now going. "Senbei wonders if this really good idea while hiding."

* * *

_Zeno:_

"Power connections active, main drive steady," came the call. "Sergeant Greenwood?"

Sergeant Greenwood picked up her walkie-talkie and considered how much she was getting to dread hearing her own name. Usually it came with problems attached. "Greenwood here."

"Ma'am, we have liftoff. Looks like the hull has some additional damage where it had settled, but not as bad as we thought it would be."

"Continue towards factory," said Greenwood, looking for some wood to knock. "Speed?"

"2 kay pea aich."

"Fine, carry on," said Sergeant Greenwood. Actually, this wasn't bad for a tech crew of newbies out on their first foreign planet. "Captain Weber?"

"Weber here. Nothing to report."

Sergeant Elaine Greenwood was in charge of the technical group. Of course this WAS a strange and barely explored planet and this WAS a world apparently killed by the enemy at one point. So there was the technical group whose job was to get the freighter to where more repairs could be made, and there was the combat team which was in charge of keeping the technical team from meeting a sudden and violent death. It was also a little confusing as she was US Marines and had ended up in charge of Air Force cadets. This whole thing made for strange bedfellows. "Good. Let's keep it that way."

"Sir? Salvatore here."

Greenwood thought about that for a moment. Oh yeah. Short black girl just out of Air Force Academy who looked five years younger than she was. Practically elfin, if dark. Specialty was in radar technologies. "Go ahead, Salvatore."

"I only got the ship's sensors active for a couple of minutes, but there's some data you really should see."

* * *

_Earth:_

Marller knew the moment the dog came out of the firestorm. "That is NOT a dog."

The fur was smouldering and there were blackened patches on what had once been a Yorkshire Terrier.

_#Systems failure. Temperatures in excess of normal safe parameters.  
Attack is composed of high temperature plasma. Repair nanites offline.  
Satellite uplink down.  
Burst transmittal of relevant combat data to SGC receivers - completed.  
Primary directive: preservation of lives of human allies.  
Analysis: chance of defeating entity - negligible. Chance of delaying entity until human allies arrive - roughly even. Chance of unit survival - none.  
Initializing auto destruct.#_

Making two leaps, the little dog latched its jaws onto Marller's right arm above the wrist.

* * *

Skuld stood not too far away, frowning. She could sense the battle going on, but she shouldn't interfere. She KNEW the rules regarding such things. The humans had to fight their own battles, and any interference Marller did was part of the balancing act that the two Vanir branches had been going through for ages. Outright warfare between them was forbidden, hence this "shadow war" of influences.

She could also sense the humans responding to the data burst coming from Yorkie. Even with rapid response teams readied, it would take ten to fifteen minutes for the fastest groups to arrive.

That had been one of the problems the people of Refuge and Zeno had faced, Skuld knew. An assassin or dark senshi could go to the area in question, strike, and be on the way again in seconds. In the case of the dark senshi, they could be part of a crowd and a continent away within those ten minutes. Even if you knew WHERE they were going to strike, hours of inactivity could dull human (and most aliens) response time. Troops would still be deactivating safety mechanisms by the time the aggressor would be escaping. Only if the enemy stood up for a firefight was there much chance of actually meeting the aggression.

There was an additional explosion as the little dog blew up.

Then helicopters swung by her position, doors open and large guns held ready.

* * *

"Venus Aerospace BOMBER!"

Sailor Venus quickly leapt to the cockpit, seeming to defy gravity - almost - for an instant there as the canopy opened before and closed behind her.

"Did the plane just do what I think it did?" asked one of the soldiers.

_FWUNG!_ came a metallic noise vaguely like some large gong as the shimmer in midair indicated something other than normal jets were active.

Slowly the aircraft aligned itself, pointing the nose at an angle that would avoid any buildings.

_FWUMMMMMMMMMMMMM!_

The dwindling orange dot was watched for the brief period it was visible.

Eyes went toward another plane present.

It was an old model, listed as scrapped on the books. Staring at it from up close was a little blue haired girl who wanted to be a doctor.

"It's all right, Miss Mercury," assured the Colonel. "We understand perfectly and it's not likely that the enemy threatening the American base will be there by the time you arrive anyway. We're sorry that the situation has put this untowards amount of pressure on you."

Sailor Mercury, who was frequently Ami Mizuno, gulped as she looked at the airplane she'd chosen out of the group of planes that "just happened" to be there. It was odd, but she felt almost a connection to this one for some reason. That if any of them would do, it would be this reconnaisance vehicle.

It wasn't something that Sailor Mercury could have explained if she'd been asked. All that she knew was that she felt some sort of connection with this particular plane. She had never had a 'need for speed', and military hardware had only interested her in what sort of advances it could make. But the gentleness of the touch that she laid her hand on that fuselage with made it clear that this wasn't just some appreciation of the technological aspect of the plane.

Turning her head so that she could look over the body of the aircraft, she could see where guns and bombs had been replaced by cameras and advanced sensors. That did appeal to her, as she'd didn't have a desire to really blast something. Rather, this sort of machine made her think of looking far to discover new pieces of information. Sure, she did realize that the information that this plane's systems had been designed to gather weren't the same as the ones that she had when she spent an afternoon in a library, but she knew that they could be the same.

Closing her eyes, she found herself feeling like she was in the plane, which was like the two of them a zephyr flowing over the ground.

Sailor Mercury was so focused on the image of flying through the sky and looking at the world in whole new ways that she didn't notice the blue glow that spread from her to the plane. It flowed out as if it were waves on a lake to cover the entire aircraft, which seemed to take the color into itself. The lines of the plane smoothed out gently, so that they flowed without clear points or straight lines. At the rear, the three 'fins' of the tail became almost organic, and it almost seemed that the plane could swim as much as it could fly. On the other hand, what recon equipment that could be seen was quite obviously changing into something that seemed likely to be more advanced than anything the designers would have ever thought they could put into it.

"Mercury Crystal Power, Make Up!" she whispered without realizing it.

The new shape of the plane took on the solidity of permanency, and the glow seemed to... 'pop' like a bubble. A warm burst of blue was sent all over the area, and azure sparkles flittered over all those who were watching. That gave the scene an almost magical air, and it made it clear that this was not just some really strange way of doing a new paint job.

One soldier stared at the pretty girl in the skimpy outfit and turned to one of his compatriots. "Maybe you should trade your pants in for a short skirt too."

"What are you talking about?" the young woman he'd spoken to grumbled. "Are you trying to be a pig?"

"Not really."

"Then why would you want to have me in a skirt?"

"Because girls in tiny skirts have apparently managed to make our planes better than we could hope for."

"Ohh...." the other soldier allowed, giving a small nod.

Their words pricked Sailor Mercury's bubble of fantasy, and she blinked as she mentally stepped back into the real world. When she saw a metal panel that was blue, rather than the gray that she'd previously seen, she realized that something was up. Moving backwards, she looked all over the plane until she couldn't see any sign that someone was trying to play a prank on her.

"Oh dear," the blue haired Senshi murmured, turning towards the soldiers with a trace of nervousness in her eyes. "Did I do that?"

As one, the soldiers all nodded in confirmation.

* * *

There was a sudden boom, followed by a rush of light, and then came a blast cloud that seemed to cover the entire roof of the warehouse.

Lieutenant Freer lowered his binoculars and frowned thoughtfully. "That couldn't be good for our target's health."

"That goes without saying," Major Lisle remarked, and let her lips twist a bit in an almost mocking expression. "But, remember that we can't assume anything at the moment."

"Because it wouldn't be good for our health?"

"Because we're Marines, and Marines don't let bad guys just go. They head in and drag their target's cold corpse in if that's the objective. A little 'boom' doesn't stop a Marine."

"Ah, and people wonder why they call you a hard ass."

"Pardon me," she asked, raising a brow at him.

"From one Marine to another, ma'am?"

"Okay...."

"It was a compliment."

For a moment, she didn't seem to understand what he meant, but then an amused smirk curled her lips, and she seemed to be rather pleased as she directed her unit into moving.

* * *

Teletha sat back into her chair, eyes wide. "What?"

"He's no longer on the base," said the crewman. "He's been assigned to guard... here we go. Kaname Chidori."

"What?" asked Teletha, feeling potential happiness slipping outside her grasp.

"Looks like she's shown positive with the Whispered effect," said the crewman. "Ancient and Silver Millenium compatibility? Wow."

Teletha looked off in the distance, her smile crumbling. The two tickets to Tokyo Marchenland (and the new Solid Snake Shootout VR Gallery) fluttered to the floor from nerveless fingers.

"Well, that certainly explains why we'd want to safeguard her," said the crewman with the list.

_sniffle_

The crewman glanced up, then made a warding gesture as he saw the expression. "Captain?"

Said Captain did not look like either a technological genius or a Captain at the moment, more like a sixteen year old girl who had just taken an emotional punch in her gut.

Nearby, Richard Mardukas saw this reaction and gave a barely perceptible nod. It appeared that he had been just in time. Who knew how bad it would have gotten if he hadn't acted when he had?

* * *

Sailor Mercury looked the vehicle over. It wasn't too hard to imagine a British plane on a British base being of an old type that was being "retired" for newer models.

It was that this particular vehicle was blue and had Mercury symbols on it that was concerning. Well, that and two other things.

Sailor Mercury abruptly became Ami Mizuno and would have collapsed if someone hadn't caught her. The magic to envelop and alter a vehicle had been exhausting for Sailor Venus as well, though she'd managed a little better simply because she'd had more experience as Sailor V and built up a knowledge of the vehicle in question as she'd prepared.

The other problem was that Sailor Mercury didn't know how to fly a plane. She hadn't had lessons. She didn't even know how to start.

She was aware of the plane enveloped in a blue glow, and then the Mercury Computer was once again in her grasp.

"I'm sorry, I just need to sit down for awhile," confessed Ami, letting herself be led off.

Usagi might have pestered Ami with her questions except for the evident exhaustion and a few looks to where a plane HAD stood until just recently.

Makoto might have asked a lot of questions herself, but aircraft made her nervous. She vowed that if SHE was going to get a vehicle - it would be a nice tank or maybe a useful car or something else that stayed on the ground.

* * *

Rubble was shrugged aside and Marller popped out. Energy flared as she rewrote her physical form to replace the parts that had gotten damaged.

"How DARE these primitives?" demanded Marller. "You should bow down and grovel lest I..."

_BOOM! buddaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap CHOOM CHOOM!_

Marller cloaked herself and vanished, flitting away as quickly as she could. Then she set down and began rebuilding herself AGAIN. "Note to self. Put defensive field up first THEN vent."

"Target acquired."

Marller went dead still. Slowly she turned, a sense of dread in her stomach.

The woman standing there had a certain doll-like attractiveness to her, and the blue hair and red eyes added to that quality. Bits and pieces of armor were either attached to or strapped to her body. She was also, cloak or no cloak, looking directly at Marller.

"Emergency directive," muttered Marller, putting her hands up as if in surrender. "Shield strength at maximum. Execute."

The expression of the doll didn't change as a purple transparent bubble popped into place around Marller.

"What are you? You're too advanced for these primitives," said Marller, though she was less and less inclined to think of these primitives as quite as backwards as she'd originally thought.

"I am KOS-MOS," answered the female figure. Lightning crackled as something formed in one hand, which looked like an oil drum onto which a pistol trigger and several odd protrubrances had been affixed. The lid of the oil drum whirred open, briefly revealing the logo 'Mister Prinny Launcher' in Asgardian script. "Prinny Barrage."

"Huh?" asked Marller before plushtoy penguins rocketed from the oil drum to begin exploding against her shield.

* * *

Skuld watched happily, eating a mint-chocolate-chip ice cream cone. These Earthers had such interesting ideas. When she'd seen that video game, she'd just HAD to come up with something like this. Exploding penguin-missiles with lock-on tracking features. KOS-MOS was such a good sport willing to field test this little experiment. She'd have to thank her later. Maybe a lube and targetting software upgrade.

On the subject of Earthers having interesting ideas, there was also ice cream. Yes, these Earthers might be primitive but they had their good points.

Oh, there went Marller, blasted to the horizon and STILL being pursued by prinny-missiles.

They wouldn't kill her of course. That would be against certain rules of conduct. Just make it difficult for Marller to do anything but repair herself for awhile, that's all. Good luck charms had just the right akashic charge for the job.

"Hmmm," said Skuld to herself, reaching for the next ice cream cone.

* * *

Flying was something that Minako loved with a passion, even though it wasn't something that she'd ever really thought that she'd try outside of commercial flights until recently. The freedom of being in the air and having the chance to soar by her own controls made it ever so enjoyable, and she couldn't help but like every opportunity that she got to fly. This was something that she was _good_ at, and with her actual pleasure in doing it, she seemed to have found something that she knew would be a lifetime pursuit.

Still, she also knew that she had a responsibility to the people who'd gotten her into this avenue of interest in the first place. That wasn't only due to the fact that there was some sort of official connection, but was also coming from her own personal desire to return the favors that these people had given her. They were rather good to her after all, and she actually liked a lot of them. Then there was the way that they'd actually come in force to help fight off the bad guys that she had thought that she'd have to face alone. So, there was little reason for Sailor Venus to not help them out when she could.

That was why the blonde took special interest in the explosion that she saw as she came in relatively low over what should have been a fairly normal bit of land. When she saw the soldiers in the area, she swung around, and knew that there was something there of interest for her. After all, her allies were down there, and dealing with some fighting, which meant that she could do something to help them out.

It was when she saw the falling figure of what had to be some sort of yoma that she realized what kind of situation this might be. Only something like that could survive such a blast, and that meant that it was just the sort of thing that she was there to fight. And she wasn't about to wait to hold onto some sort of laziness in _this_.

"Weapons systems ON!" she called out, even if she wasn't too sure that she had to. No one was listening anyway, and she decided that she didn't care anyway as she flicked the arming switch. Once the displays showed that her guns were 'hot', she wasn't about to waste any time, and pulled the trigger as soon as she had a lock on her target. "Venus Love Me Chain GUN!"

She did have to wonder why the sound that she got as the weapon in the nose of her plane fired sounded like either a rapid series of blasts of gases or a whole lot of kissing sounds though.

* * *

The situation that was happening right then wasn't something that Marller was too keen on right then. That was perfectly understandable, given the fact that she was currently dropping like a stone from way high up after being blasted by exploding penguin missiles. It was totally embarrassing, and she was _not_ too happy about it.

Not that it seemed that her day was getting any better, and that didn't just include the penguin weapons that were being shot her way. Something that looked like one of the local combat aircraft was heading her way, and it came on an attack vector. With the fatalism of one who knew that she was screwed, she could only watch as the unmistakable flashes of weapons fire showed from the front of the plane.

However, she wasn't all that clear on just _what_ was being sent her way. It _should_ have been small pieces of metal launched from a simple combustion weapon. Instead, she could see golden flashes of light that were either in the shape of kissing lips or hearts coming her way. Her lack of clarity on the subject wasn't her biggest problem at the moment. With the things moving as they were, she knew that she was going to be hit.

And just as was about to be blasted by a cheerful light 'bullet', she could think of only one thought. 'What did I do to deserve this?'

* * *

Hotaru turned to Ranma with a thoughtful little frown. "Do you really think that this is the best thing to be doing?"

"Whaddya mean?" Ranma asked her with a small rise to his brows.

"I mean.... I didn't know that this was going to happen...."

"Huh? Do ya think that it's bad?"

"Oh, no, of course not," she replied, and waved her hands apologetically. "It's just that.... We haven't really had a chance to show them a lot about our books...."

"Exactly. And there is one thing ta remember, Hotaru."

"What's that?"

"They ain't got a lot of stuff from those snake heads 'bout heroes, right?" the pigtailed boy asked.

"Oh, that's right! I hadn't thought of it that way."

"Exactly. This will help these guys get some ideas about heroes, and the sort of things like that!"

"From manga like 'Dragon Muyo' and 'Record of Gear Wars'?"

"Exactly!"

"Oh," she murmured, and blinked great big violet eyes at him. "But what about that one?"

"He's cool. Had to go around the world to become a real fighter. What can I say? The Americans can make some cool comics when they wanna," Ranma told her, and gave a small shrug.

* * *

Loneliness had never been something that Sosuke had really ever fallen victim too. Over the years, he'd had to suffer through blinding snow storms, desert heat, and everything in between, all by himself. That wasn't to say that his comrades had abandoned him, but that there were moments where he had to work on his own, rather than be part of a consolidated team.

As a result, being alone in an apartment in Tokyo wasn't all that bad. He had equipment already set up, with the electronic sensory devices all pointing towards his mission target. His living space was in a direct line across from the apartment of the girl he was supposed to protect. That would make it easier to observe any sort of foul play coming at her from the outside of the building, and allow him some ability to see what was going on.

And since they were in the same complex area, he wouldn't have to worry about as many obstacles. He'd already timed how long it would take to get to her apartment from his, and was working on plans to shorten that time. It was his job to be there to stop any untoward actions towards her person, and he couldn't do it if he spent too much time in transit.

But he wasn't about to allow himself to fail in his mission to protect Miss Kaname Chidori.

He'd just have to get used to the silence that would be around him after his time on the base.

Realizing that he had little choice in the matter, he continued to work.

* * *

**_AUTHOR'S NOTES:_**

Okay, still working my way through things.

Will be putting together 21 and maybe a few more chapters this weekend.

Please review if you see something you like. That helps me and Kender when, as now, we've hit a writer's block.

Thank you. 


	21. Chapter 21: Demons and Dungeons

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Chapter 21: Demons and Dungeons

* * *

"Okay," mumbled Captain Carter to herself as the silence grew distinctly uncomfortable, "maybe that wasn't the best move I could have made."

"Did you say something?" asked a pleasant contralto voice.

"No, nothing," said Captain Carter, rolling her eyes. Hopefully when Jack changed back, HE would calm down some.

* * *

Marller was not having a good day.

For one thing, she was regenerating. AGAIN.

For another, she was in a sewer - having fled here to avoid completely discorporating.

One of those shots from that odd plane would have been no problem. THOUSANDS of shots constituted a significant problem. They hadn't damaged the surroundings at all, but her clothes and physical form had begun coming apart rather quickly.

She held out a hand as a rat came near, disintegrating the creature and using the resulting stream of atoms to add to what she was rebuilding here.

This was taking most of her attention as each shot that had hit her had managed more damage than those exploding waterfowl. She KNEW Skuld had provided that weapon - it had her style if a bit weird in the application. That android and the dog-thing had NOT been Skuld's work. Considerably different in feel. And then that plane - not Skuld's work either.

Marller stopped when she had her form mostly rebuilt. She would have to find somewhere to lair up and do a much slower repair job. If she hadn't had a full charge through Niddhog, she would have died. As it was, that charge was mostly depleted and here on this planet it would be slower to refill that charge.

Marller tapped thoughtfully on a wall as she positioned herself in the lair she'd formed when disintegrating her surroundings to rebuild mass. Not enough organic material, at least of a sort she'd find tolerable in recycling, so converting the dirt and concrete to something more useful had taken even more power.

She thought she had it though. These Earthworms were doing much as the Goa'uld had - going out and scavenging things from the universe around them. Unlike the Goa'uld, they were working out the underlying principles of the equipment and extrapolating other technologies from that.

That made this dirtball fairly important, as they had the potential for being harder to manipulate and far more capable in the long run than the Goa'uld.

The Goa'uld had hit a stage that mainly plagued non-spacefaring cultures. The "crowded rat" syndrome where there was no longer areas to expand into and the societies were mainly stagnant. The species began to feed upon itself, figuratively speaking. To those of Marller's faction of the Vanir, the Hel crew, it was the second most entertaining of times. The first was when the species was truly primitive and just beginning the vestiges of civilization. So many lovely ideas could be planted to later bear the most destructive fruit when they were like that. When a species found a Stargate and figured out its use, or when they got the hang of interstellar travel - they entered a Frontier stage where that feedbacking loop of factionalizing self-destruction was supressed. The Goa'uld had hit their second stage of it, when speeds of interstellar travel and other limitations had managed to trigger that cycle.

This planet SHOULD be in that same cycle. There was plenty of evidence that most of it WAS in that stage. Sociological and cultural development had been left behind a technological lag, and their "pressure cooker" was heading for a proper boil. Except that SOMETHING was going wrong.

Marller yawned, exhausted by her efforts as she erected wards to keep her lair hidden and sealed the walls to form a chamber not easily broken into. The Vanir had not made the difference. They had interfered to be sure, but it was all low level stuff making only tiny ripples as far as she'd been able to tell. As much as she'd love to cast this all at the three Norns' feet - they couldn't have done so.

Marller settled in for a long rest. She'd have to manipulate her pawns a bit more when she awakened. For now she had to recharge her reserves and finish regenerating.

* * *

Ranma pondered, which was a bit of a strange activity for himself.

His two kukri were of materials which could withstand Goa'uld staff blasts, beyond razor sharp on their single edges, and capable of slicing steel. He could use them as foci to unleash the vaccuum blade attack with less effort than might otherwise be the case.

As he handed out manga to the various Refuge personnel and made such stories available, he was considering some of them in particular.

Getting a broad belt, he put sets of ammo pouches upon it, the twin sheaths for his blades, and began considering something outside his martial arts but within its philosophy.

Anything Goes. Whatever it takes to survive and win. He'd scavenged a few items here and there, and now he began figuring out the trick of making a utility belt.

It still wouldn't help him take out a Death Glider, but it was a start.

* * *

The morning was turning out to be a rather laid back one for Kaname Chidori as she strolled away from her teacher and headed into the school building. It wasn't that she was terribly enamoured of classes, but she did feel rather comfortable at the moment. School life agreed with her, as she'd managed to really get into class activities, like her responsibilities as class representative and vice president of the student council. She had a good time going to classes, and was finding herself rather pleased with the ability to have such a place for her to go.

That didn't stop her from scowling a moment later.

"Kana-chan!" called out a familiar voice, and Kaname turned to face the brunette who was smiling as she came her way. "Good morning!"

"Good morning, Kyoko. And what were you thinking?" the blue haired girl asked.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"What do I 'mean'? I'm talking about that guy that you fixed me up last night!"

"Oh?"

"The one who wanted to tell me all about how he was connected to designers and J-Leaguers was bad enough, but this one wouldn't stop talking about how great he was! He was almost as bad as that kendo guy at the interschool tournament who kept on talking about how he was 'heaven's samurai'!"

"Hhmmm.... Was he really that bad?"

A vein throbbed at Kaname's temple and she ground her teeth together. "It was awful! We couldn't do anything more worthwhile than to stroke his bloated ego!"

"That really sounds awful.... I didn't know that it would go that bad...."

"You didn't?"

"No, but then I didn't really know what to expect. When I was asked to set him up with you, I thought that it would go well enough," Kyoko replied, and gave a small shrug.

"You were asked. Again?"

"Yup!"

"Man...." Kaname sighed, and put one hand over her eyes. "Listen, if someone were to ask you set me up on a blind date with them, say no."

"If that's what you want...."

"Trust me, it is. After all, it's not like some guy that I'm going to get seriously involved with is going to walk into my life unexpectedly one day."

"I said, you there! Stop!" came the angered tones of their homeroom teacher, Miss Kagurazaka. Both girls turned to see where the short haired woman was glaring at a strange boy with a scar on his cheek that neither had seen before. He was in their school uniform, and he seemed to be utterly oblivious to the annoyed teacher behind him. In fact, he seemed to be looking at only Kaname as he came in their direction.

Not that Miss Kagurazaka was about to let him get away with that. She raced over and grabbed his bag from him. "I told you to stop!"

"That was directed towards me?" the boy asked, seemingly clueless as to his mistake.

"Yes, it was! I was telling you to stop so that I could check your bag!"

"That is done here?"

"Of course it is! You're not going to cause trouble about it, are you?"

"No, I think not. It is a wise security precaution, and I commend your actions in following such rigid adherence to such preventative measures," the brown haired boy responded.

"Then why did you try to blow past it?"

"I simply did not know that such a system was installed at this school. The one that I was sent to before this one did not have such policies set up."

Miss Kagurazaka, as well as Kaname and Kyoko, gave him a flat look of disbelief and confusion. "Does that mean that you're going to let me look in your bag?"

"Ma'am, yes, ma'am!" the boy answered, opening and holding out his bag for her inspection.

"Hmmm?"

"Is something wrong, ma'am?"

"Other than the fact that I don't feel old enough to be called 'ma'am'?" the teacher muttered, and then squared her shoulders as she pulled something out of his pack. "What is this?"

"It is a pair of binoculars, with electronic range finding, night vision optics, laser sighting, and an anti-glare coating."

"And you think that this is a good thing to bring into this school?"

"Absolutely. It would assist in long distance viewing of any sort of enemy movements, and could allow a user to determine situational variables without having to come into direct contact with them. In addition, spaces denied access to could be viewed through good positioning, with the care to make sure that the vantage point is properly set up."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, ma'am!" he confirmed with utter confidence.

"Then.... I'll be taking this."

"You will?"

"Do you have a problem with that?" the teacher asked in a level, yet rather menacing tone.

"No, ma'am!"

"Good. On your first day after transferring here too..."

Kaname sighed, and couldn't help but stare in shock at the boy. "Great. Just what we need. A guy who acts like he's in a recruit platoon in a war movie...."

Looking between her friend and the new student, Kyoko found that she couldn't understand the reason for her friend's seeming focus on the new boy. So, she settled for using the small camera she always carried to take a picture of him and Kaname each, finding herself certain that there would be more such photos in the future.

* * *

Hotaru looked dubiously at the item on the table before her. "This is your 'utility belt'?"

"That's right!" Ranma replied, grinning mightily. "The way that I figure it, I need all that I can get ta help me fight. And this will let me carry around stuff to make sure that I'll have some tricks up my sleeve."

"Like what?"

"Some extra weapons. A couple of smoke bombs. Stuff like that."

"Are you sure that you should go with only that?"

He turned from his appreciation of his belt and looked into a pair of violet eyes. "Are you saying that ya don't like it?"

"Oh, no! Of course not! It's just that...."

"What?"

"If you're going to carry that around, then why not put something like a bit of food, or a first aid pack?"

"That's a good idea, ya know."

"You think so? I'm glad...." she whispered, a little blush rising on her pale cheeks. "I was worried...."

"Ya were? Why would ya be?"

"Well, when you first started telling me about it, you reminded me about something that I've heard some of the soldiers say."

"What 'something' are you talking about?"

"They kept on talking about a 'man purse', and to tell the truth, it sounded like what you were describing at first," Hotaru admitted a little bashfully.

His only response was to stare at her dully as he found himself pleased that she didn't say that she considered his belt to be a 'man purse' at all.

* * *

"There was _what_ there?" Rei asked her friends as they sat at the table in her room.

Makoto leaned back and gave a wry grin. "A _big_ group of important people."

"None of them were the 'world leaders' that you see on television, of course," Ami put in. "But they _were_ certainly high up in the governments of their countries."

"And they had some really yummy food at the buffet!" Usagi chirped.

"A lot of cute guys too," the tallest of the girls murmured.

"One of us even got something really special."

"Who got what?" the shrine maiden asked, a small frown curling her lips.

"Ami got her own plane!" Minako brightly informed her.

The blue haired girl ducked her head. "It wasn't intentional, and I can't fly...."

"But you'll be joining me in the air soon enough."

A mild look of distaste crossed Makoto's features. "Only... I'd kind of like to go by train or car, or something like that next time."

"Then... it was fun?" Rei asked.

"Uh-huh!" the other four Senshi responded, nodding as one.

* * *

All in all, some things had to remain a constant.

Despite being superheroes, despite being drawn into a war that involved supernatural beings and interstellar alien villainry, they were teenagers and that meant one additional thing.

They had to go to school.

Ami, Usagi, Makoto at their school in Japan. Rei at a seperate school.

Kaname and Sosuke at THEIR school.

Hotaru, Minako (after painting a stylized demonhead with a big 'X' over it on P-chan's nose assembly), and Ranma had school on Refuge. Ranma fell asleep, Hotaru nudged him awake, and Minako dreamed of piloting "P-chan" into all sorts of combat situations.

There were differences though. The class that Hotaru, Ranma, and Minako attended also had KOS-MOS and a number of children originally from Chulak. Ranma managed to stay awake without prompting during weapons practice and during 'vehicle operation' training.

Of course, there were differences out amongst the other groups as well.

* * *

"So... a floating classroom?" asked Ranma, looking around.

"Sort of," admitted Shion. "SG-X2 discovered the mining operations on the moon and a docking ring contained this ship and two others. This being a combination freighter and transport, it seemed perfect for these purposes."

"Huh," said Ranma, accepting that. "What about these?" He tugged at the neck of his 'school uniform' with one finger.

"Skinsuits," said Shion. "A new sort of spacesuit developed recently."

"Do they have to be so..." asked Hotaru, fidgeting. "so..."

"Like a second skin," supplied Minako.

"If a micrometeor pierces the hull and we have a decompression, it'll save your life," said Shion. "Long enough for you to put the helmet on."

"This thing'll really inflate into a helmet?" asked Tyvac.

"The electronics are in the collar," said Shion, holding up the hoop of metal herself. "The helmet uses the same sort of technology that a Serpent Guard helmet does - with a plastic film inflating that will act as a sealant. Just don't go trying it out as they don't have many of these built just yet."

"Kids," muttered the captain, glancing back at them.

"With an android, a ninja, and a magical girl," pointed out Lieutenant Hammer at the scan console.

"Whatever," said the Captain. "Tony, let's settle into a nice high orbit without any problems. We'll do the shakedown for the _Elsa_ later."

"Yeah, yeah, where'll you be, Captain?" asked Hammer, heading for his console.

"That kid brought a box of 'Magic Knight Jeanne' on board, and I haven't read the latest issue," said Captain Matthews. "How soon before we get the bar built?"

"At least two more trips," said Hammer.

* * *

Pluto sat on a large cube of what she guessed was ammunition. "Galaxia."

"Yes, it's rather a problem," said Urd. "Unfortunately there is little we can do. We're not supposed to involve ourselves with developing races and there are other problems involved here."

"You're already involved with developing races," said Pluto. "Earth."

"My sister found a loophole, a destiny, and something she's wanted for longer than most humans would find credible," admitted Urd. "Even so, she's still constrained by rules that were conceived and developed for the benefit of less socially and technologically developed races."

"Rules? Rules that keep you from dealing with THAT?" asked Pluto.

"Yes, civilizations are defined by rules and laws and treaties," said Urd, throwing her hands up. "Admittedly, I've got a bit of an anarchist streak, but that just means I'm under more scrutiny."

"I can't imagine why," said Thor, whose tone was drier than a number of deserts.

"Why, Thor, you old flatterer," said Urd.

"How did things get _this_ screwed up?" muttered Sailor Pluto under her breath. She certainly didn't remember any of this going on.

* * *

Ranma kept an eye out. Anything useful was considered for his utility belt. Collapsible grapnel and a thin rope for climbing? Good enough.

Of course, choosing stuff was a little difficult in class. Especially when it was dealing with stuff and in a language he still had trouble with from time to time.

Oh he had the basics all right. He still tended to speak Japanese to those who understood it, and was relieved when someone DID speak his native language. Hotaru could translate for him otherwise - but he couldn't rely on her being around.

So he WAS paying attention in English class. Math though. However he wasn't exactly expecting to be hit by two trains leaving from different cities, much less figure out where they would impact.

Stupid question anyway. Didn't they have computers and stuff to make sure that didn't happen? HE sure wasn't going to spend time working out when they were going to meet, he'd be working on making sure one of 'em stopped!

Having experience with teachers though - he knew better than to put such common sense answers on his papers.

"What's a train?" asked Tyvac.

"Substitute 'Death Glider' for 'train' then," suggested Shion.

Okay, decided Ranma. That made a bit more sense.

* * *

Rei wrapped her long fingers around her cup of tea, and sighed as she tilted her head forward, towards the table that she was seated at. At that moment, it was all that she could do, given what had been happening around her. Life was going in a direction that she wasn't too sure that she trusted, but no matter how much she protested, she didn't anywhere with it.

In fact, that life path included the older woman in her bedroom with her. "Do you _have_ to do that?"

"If you don't remember, let me remind you," Melissa Mao said with a slight mocking tilt to her brow. "I am a military person assigned to you, and that means that I have to keep up with my job."

"I know that much, but...."

"What's with you today, anyway? Tired, or just really cranky?"

"Probably both," the teenager admitted, and barely kept herself from snorting. It wasn't like it would help to let the military know that she was getting frustrated by her situation. But then, she couldn't help herself, given the fact that all her friends were seeming to leap onto the military bandwagon without giving it a second thought.

"Then why don't you take a nap or something?"

"Don't think it will help."

The military woman gave her a measuring look. "Are you sure about that? It can do you good to get enough rest...."

"It's not that."

"Well, I can't interrogate you, but remember, you have to admit it sooner or later."

"What? Why?" the raven haired girl blurted.

"Simple. If you don't, you'll end up just causing yourself more harm than any good that protecting yourself would ever give you."

"Oh...."

"What's that mean? Do you think that I'd force you to explain yourself at gunpoint?" Melissa asked, stopping in the middle of disconnecting the two pieces that she was holding.

"I'm surprised that one of you military guys hasn't tried that yet."

"Hold on a second. Are you saying that we're some sort of... goon squad?"

This time, Rei's lips flattened into a thin line. "Not all of you, but enough."

"Your friends seem to trust us alright."

"_They_ haven't really looked at history. Some of the biggest problems around were caused by military officers who thought that making things go 'boom' made troubles go away."

"Can't argue with you there...."

And that was the problem, in Rei's opinion. Her friends had wholeheartedly embraced the help that the military gave them. Yet, they never seemed to realize that it just took one officious bully of an official, or a power hungry general to totally make them regret that connection.

Then again, they were getting all sorts of neat things, like Minako's, and now Ami's, planes. The government gave them support in money, personnel, and tactical data, all of which was terribly useful. Fighting the enemy with strong back up wasn't quite as bad as facing them alone, and it did help her in that direction. However, she just didn't like the idea of being dependent on groups that ran the risk of some self centered soul trying to work against common sense and take over the whole project. She wasn't sure that she wanted to risk having her possible future be as a brainwashed military agent, even if that meant that she missed out on the group fun with her friends.

Still, there were things that she knew that she simply could not understand quickly, such as what was happening before her. "May I ask something that seems to be a dumb question? Just why did you think that it would be a good idea to do _that_ here?!"

"I've cleaned my guns around you before," the short haired woman reminded her.

"That's not what I'm concerned about. I know that you have to use guns, and that means keeping them clean, so as to keep them from misfiring."

"Which is why I have to work on this. So, what's the problem?"

"'What's the problem'?" Rei growled, her gaze shooting daggers at the older woman. "You've brought a _rocket launcher_ into my room!"

"So?"

"I can't quite just slip it under my bed to keep my grandfather from finding it! And what exactly could you use _that_ on?"

"One of those monsters you fight, perhaps? Remember, there are probably some that are armored up their asses, and that means that you need to have heavy firepower to take them out," Melissa informed her.

"Oh. That makes a little sense...."

"What? Do you think that I'm going to just blast anyone who slips off for some private time on the shrine lands?"

"Already happened."

"Really?"

"Sosuke, and he used stun mines after I confiscated the explosive ones."

"I see...."

'And people wonder why I'm so against risking having to deal with stupid people who think that blowing problems up is always the way to go,' Rei thought to herself, and started to contemplate her tea. It was certainly a whole lot safer than a bunch of soldiers who were constantly giving her headaches.

* * *

"It's cool, right?" Minako asked as she looked at the alien in front of her, who just so happened to also look like a pretty teenaged girl with long black hair.

Skuld glanced over her shoulder at the blonde human from where she'd been running the fingertips of one hand along the Venus aircraft's fuselage. "You can say that again. It is quite the machine."

"Isn't it though? And I can't believe that it's all mine sometimes."

"I can bet," the alien admitted, and practically cooed over the transformed plane. "I would never have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. This is way beyond what the humans around here would be able to create."

"Then you came to admire it?"

"Sort of. They also asked me to check it out."

The blonde scratched her head for a second, and then frowned in confusion. "But I thought that you weren't allowed to help us advance...."

"We're not allowed to help you get technology. You already have it, so it's just a matter of time and opportunity to figure out how it works."

"That's why they asked you to come?"

"Well, think of a fleet of planes that could go into space...." Skuld trailed off.

"That'd be so cool!"

"For you, yes. But for me...."

"What?"

"I can't believe that I can get to work with all this neat equipment," the Vanir sighed happily, practically hugging one of the landing struts.

For a moment, that threw Minako, but as she realized that she understood the sentiment, she smiled, and accepted the alien girl's enthusiasm as she would her own

* * *

The ship was still being refurbished and the crew was... well... a bit odd.

A frieghter/courier ship that had been recently recovered, it had ended up acting as a travelling schoolhouse while the one on Refuge was being pumped out.

The partially built schoolhouse ON Refuge had seen another one of those storms approach, and the downpour had been sufficiently bad that mud was the current state of affairs over the new colony world.

"Captain Matthews?" asked Hammer, touching the intercom's controls. "Message coming from the mining complex expedition."

"Directly? I thought we were just bouncing their signal towards the base camp. Relay it here," came the response.

Hammer nodded and toggled the appropriate controls, which was easy as this particular setup was Earth technology compared to the bulk of the ship's systems which were of the Nanotechs who had settled Refuge.

"...quarantine measures in place. It's all open to space as whatever pressure seals there were apparently blew out a millenia or two ago, but there WAS something interesting we found on something like a blackboard in what we've dubbed the main office."

"Roger that," said Hammer. "I take it with the vaccuum and the bulk of the moon providing shielding, things are in pretty good shape?"

"That's correct, _Elsa_. Is the video feed getting relayed to Refuge?"

"Roger," said Hammer, checking the display. "I show they've got good reception. Video and audio going 10/10."

"Cool beans. According to this display, they found an artifact from another civilization and were interring it here rather than set it down on a planet. Team scientists are still disputing what the artifact is - it's in another section of the complex a bit further in. We translated the quarantine signs and stopped exploration until we can determine what the quarantine regarded."

"They're in vaccuum, right?" asked Matthews' voice. "Spacesuits and no atmosphere ought to protect from viruses and such, right?"

"Roger. It IS vaccuum here, or close enough. Even if it were something to go into a spore form, you'd think the amount of time involved would finish it off. DNA degrades with time like anything else. The quarantine measures include a molecular weld, so it's going to take awhile to break through anyway."

"Keep us informed," asked Captain Matthews.

* * *

Ranma added a few school supplies to the utility belt's plans. Calculator. Pen. Automatic pencil (for one thing it didn't suffer gravity problems the way a pen did). Maybe he could get one of them medscanner things.

Hotaru came up with (surprising a few people) throwing stars and a collapsible staff. When asked, she pointed out that she DID watch Ranma train and knew he could wield both quite well.

KOS-MOS overheard and came up with her own suggestions. Most of which were bulky, heavy, and involved a good deal of firepower. One, however, intrigued those who heard of it.

The basic idea was a sort of Anything Goes hand-weapon. Using nanites paired with rigid materials, programmed to respond to coded signals by shifting into different configurations, it might be possible to make a weapon that could be converted to fit any particular need. A knife or sword for close-in, a prybar for stubborn doors, a club for blocking weapons, and so on.

Certainly such a thing was possible. KOS-MOS herself utilized that technology to some extent. In the sort of thing the gynoid was suggesting it wouldn't be possible to make something too complex or to have an energy weapon setting, at least with current limitations on things like computing memory.

One of the techs had started in talking about a "universal wrench" or repair tool that could be reconfigured to a number of set shapes.

Ranma took notes.

Hotaru helped. This really wasn't a strong point with her. She preferred something other than all the fighting, but she was a superhero of sorts apparently. Helping Ranma in that regard seemed to be kind of in the general air of those sorts of stories.

That it meant she'd be working closely with Ranma as he put his "utility belt" together was entirely beside the point.

* * *

"Ooooh...." went Skuld, who might have denied ever being able to make such a sound at another time. But she was a young girl who could be impressed by what interested her, and she would have felt comfortable with the reason for her current reaction.

Minako's smile was bright and full of warmth as she stood on a ladder overlooking where the alien girl sat in her plane's pilot seat. "It's great, isn't it?"

"You bet! I've never thought that a human at your level would be able to manage to create something _this_ interesting...."

"'_My_ level'?"

"Don't get me wrong. That isn't to say that you're dumb or something. It's just that you haven't been trained in doing what you did, and you still managed to make a craft like this one."

"So...."

"You really must have some sort of talent for it! Some sort of connection with your machine like this is so wonderful!"

"Well, I do feel really good about my P-chan...." the blonde allowed, putting a finger to her lips.

"That's what I mean. You even named him. I can understand something like that. Though...."

"What?"

"Now I want to do all sorts of neat things to this plane, but there's that rule about not advancing species in the way!" the Norn groused, pouting slightly.

"You do?"

"Uh-huh!"

"Aren't there other machines around that you can work on too?"

Giving her companion a look of understanding, the Vanir nodded. "Yes, there are, and I'd love to get my hands on them all. I just love the idea of getting to touch, examine, and rework something transformed from its original design. And I'd make it better."

"Any in mind?"

"I definitely have my choices."

* * *

It was odd, but KOS-MOS couldn't stop herself from doing it. There seemed to be a lowering of body and air temperature running down her spine. That led to a corresponding shiver that seemed to need to run over her entire body.

"KOS-MOS, is something wrong?" Shion asked, her voice full of concern.

"Not at the moment," the blue haired gynoid answered. "It was a momentary abberation that will hopefully not be repeated. At all."

"Oh...."

* * *

What some people didn't understand about System Lords was that they didn't do 'fear'. To them, being 'afraid' of something was a weakness, and to be weak was to be dominated. As they were a species aiming to dominate others, including each other, it was not something that they wouldn't even admit that they were afraid of anything to themselves, never mind anyone else. Some might be cowards, and others might be overly cautious, but none of them would do something so... demeaning as to show fear in front of another.

Out of the group of System Lords, Heru-ur had less reason than most to be afraid, as he was already powerful on his own. With the death of his 'father', he had gained an immense amount of power which he wasn't shy about using. He was strong, capable, and didn't mind using either to his advantage. And at the moment, he had an opportunity staring him right in the face.

"I want an evaluation of the Tau'ri combat strengths, and I want it as soon as possible," he told his First Prime.

The Jaffa came smoothly to attention, saluted, and bowed slightly before leaving to follow the orders.

That was not something that really concerned Heru-ur all that much. Either his subordinates did their assigned tasks, or they died. It was as simple as that, and he didn't really care about what happened to them in that case. They were merely slaves, and he was going to use them as he would like or need, no matter what.

His real concern was placed upon the Tau'ri, who he was already making plans about. That particular group of humans were becoming quite the focus point, which made it all the more important that he deal with them as soon as possible. Not only would that rid him of a possible future thread, but it would give him the advantages that their 'discoveries' and resources could give him.

But there were added bonuses in this endeavor. The Tau'ri were the ones who had killed his father, which made the idea of attacking their worlds, destroying them utterly, and taking what would be left all the sweeter. He might understand the idea of taking over another's place by slaying them, but he could admit that there would be a bit of satisfaction in taking out the group that had defeated Ra.

Plus it would allow him to get one over on Apophis. That fool had already lost his world and his slaves due to those humans, and humiliating his enemy even further was something that he really could enjoy. It simply wouldn't do to leave such a prize out there for Apophis to take back, and getting it would mean a lot. He'd not only be getting the strength that his long time foe had lost, but he'd be also showing that he had the power to do that which Apophis could not.

Sometimes, the universe decided to be benevolent towards certain individuals, and Heru-ur was sure that this was such a moment for him.

He just had to figure out how he could do what he wished without repeating Apophis' mistakes.

* * *

There was a problem with Heru'ur's spies. They knew Heru'ur.

Report BAD news, information that didn't agree with the god's plans, information that was not quite to the god's liking and there were consequences. Usually fatal consequences.

If one tried to gild the news so that Heru'ur was happy with the information, and then it later turned out that such was inaccurate - one would find oneself with the same lack of a happy life.

His spies and informants therefore tried to figure out how to put their initial findings in that 'survivable zone' - accurate enough not to blow up in their faces later, while flattering enough to the god's ideas that he wouldn't get angry at any stories thereof.

The modified tel'tac sped into the system quickly and made a loop that took it to Earth orbit before curving away again and then parking at a location above the plane of the ecliptic. There it could monitor activity and get details from the satellite they'd deposited in Earth orbit.

No one on Earth reacted, indicating that they were indeed a primitive stupid people that would quickly fall to the god Heru'ur.

* * *

"They're just sitting there," said Colonel Hastings.

"Why?" asked the President.

"We believe it's a scout or observer, sent here prior to a full-fledged invasion," said Colonel Hastings.

The President sat back and considered this, his eyes focussed on the grainy photographs. "What do the joint chiefs think?"

"We keep quiet, we keep watch, we hurry as best we can on what we can," said Colonel Hastings. "Let our allies know discretely about this development. There's no way we can fight off a full invasion force such as a System Lord can bring to bear against us, but if we can surprise them with an unexpected show of force when they arrive..."

"Bluff," said the President with a nod. "Okay, then. How long before we acquire the ships from Xeno?"

"None of the ships from Xeno are really useable as they are," said Colonel Hastings. "Using them as salvage, we might be able to lift the engines and other parts for use in our own vehicles. Most likely estimates place it as being two to three months to get those parts back here and fitted in just enough for liftoff. It might take years to build entirely Earth-based versions."

"That's because of this nanostuff?" asked the President.

"Yes sir," agreed Colonel Hastings. "We're like the ancient Greek philosophers trying to take apart and duplicate a modern fighter jet. Even where we can figure out the underlying principles, our materials and manufacture technology just isn't up to the task."

"Well, I leave it to the joint chiefs," said the President. "All this Flash Gordon stuff is beyond me. I've got more than enough just dealing with the politics of here-and-now."

"Yes sir," said Colonel Hastings, knowing a dismissal when he heard one.

* * *

The drill bit through the weld finally and the watchers were rewarded with a brief puff of air.

"Not much atmosphere on the other side," said one of the investigative team sent to this lunar mining site. "Readings indicate some helium mix."

"Signal still 10/10."

Contrary to many many movies, these people might be military but they weren't stupid and not one of them considered themselves expendable. More than one had a touch of superstition and as a result none of them were wearing red shirts under their spacesuits.

"Roger," said Captain Gaiman. "Feeding the camera through. Power on. Lens cap off."

"No internal lighting," said the team at the relay point. "All we're getting is a lot of black."

"Not exactly unexpected," said Captain Gaiman. "Feeding the LED strand through now."

There was no attempt to open the door. The single hole drilled into the door was less than 25mm wide. Just big enough to pass the camera and LED string through. As soon as he'd fed the two through, Captain Gaiman returned one hand to the splat gun that would put a layer of quick-hardening goo over that hole. Just in case.

"Okay, we're getting something," said the relay station.

Captain Gaiman listened, ready to seal the place and begin a retreat if it sounded like whatever was within was a threat. Some people might fault them for being ready to seal a potential technological trove away. Some people were not here in a setting that was WAY too close to certain horror movies, unlike Captain Neil Gaiman who had been a Star Wars nerd for DECADES before getting his dream job.

* * *

"Holy cow...." lowly came from the relay station, almost as if the person on duty had forgotten how to breathe.

Captain Gaiman frowned slightly as he tried not to be concerned about that reaction. "What is it?"

"Some golden monolith with a gemstone and little arms."

"A... monolith?"

"Uh-huh. It's /big/, whatever it is. Taller enough to dwarf any person close to it."

"And...?"

The relay station operator seemed confused by the sound in his voice. "What?"

"Is there anything else to be seen?"

"Not that I can tell, but if there's that much gold in that thing, it alone's got to be a treasure."

"I see...." the captain murmured as images of fortune hunters releasing bad things filled his mind. "Just remember that we aren't here to get rich."

"I know, but the idea of coming across something like this is almost like a movie."

"And I suggest that you don't touch it at all," murmured the voice of the science advisor to the team. "Not if you want to be smart about it, okay?"

"What do you mean, Doctor?" Gaiman asked.

"We don't know what it is. But that doesn't mean that we can go poking at it like some naughty schoolboys. For all we know, it could be some sort of great big shiny bomb waiting to go off. Or it could simply be some sort of religious icon."

One of the soldiers sensed a need to relieve some tension, and let some dry wit into his voice. "Which would mean that we'd have to worry about curses, wouldn't we then, Doc?"

"I'd rather worry about the possibility of things like human sacrifice, booby traps, and other things than some silly supersition. Besides...."

"What?"

"For all we know, this might have been made by an even older civilization, and was merely taken in by the ones would would worship it, which means that the possibility of some danger that the locals thought of as 'magic' was some really advanced thing-a-ma-bob."

Gaiman nodded at the concept. "Your recommendations, Doctor?"

"Call for some experts. That 'Jackson' fellow or that 'Carter' lady perhaps. We'll need to know what it can do, and what it has done, and that means figuring out the big golden bar and what the locals thought of it at the same time. Archeology and materials analysis, right there."

"Then we secure the site, and get the proper equipment and people for the job."

"No arguments from here," commented the relay station operator.

"Then let's put in a call and get them to send us something to start checking this thing out."

The men all nodded, and they moved to set up a more permanent station.

* * *

Ranma had a purpose in life. Protecting Hotaru. He had a path in life. The martial arts. He excelled at both.

His style was Anything Goes, and he followed the philosophy of incorporating almost anything that brought him an advantage in combat as "fair game" and anything that was an unfair advantage held by his opponents was something to find ways to overcome.

He'd tried out the various Goa'uld devices. While he could use a Staff Weapon, he found the aim terrible and the device's kick to be worse. The zat'nik'tel wasn't quite as bad, but it wasn't good either. The palm device didn't work, like a lot of the various personal gadgets of the Goa'uld.

His utility belt already had a few items he'd put together. Medkit, grappling hook, his kukri, a couple of flash grenades, a little vial of the water purification pills, one of those emergency signal discs some guy in Refuge had worked out. The last was one of those one-time-only gadgets. Flip open the cover, hit the button, and it would send out a coded locator signal. Which could be used for rescue, or for targetting, depending on the need and what the little toggle next to the button was set for.

The batarangs were kinda neat in the series he had taken the utility belt from. Still, he knew a boomerang that hit its target did NOT return. Throwing knives were silent and balanced, he just needed to find a good set. Throwing wedges or something, maybe with an electric discharge he could add? A throwing taser?

Hotaru tapped her drink glass thoughtfully as she sat next to Ranma. Ranma would NOT allow her to protect him. He would NOT take a place out of combat where he'd be safe. Therefore she had to think of ways to protect him that were a little more subtle than would normally register with Ranma.

Fortunately, she had an idea.

* * *

The technicians were pulling all-day/most-night shifts. Not because they were forced to do so, but because they were aware of several things. One, any minute wasted might see an attack on Earth. Two, this was the sort of thing that many had dreamed of.

"You in Power Loader Six. Get some sleep before you fall over."

Some things remained the same no matter what alien stars hung overhead.

* * *

The scoutship hung above the plane that most orbits around the sun obeyed, and might have appeared to be just another chunk of debris left over from the solar system's formation.

Of course, if one had noticed the thing to begin with, then the disguise failed in several key respects.

So the spies were themselves being spied upon. The "space debris" was observed and monitored carefully.

Not that there was any outward indication of that scrutiny.

* * *

"So this is it," said Jack, back to being male from within his spacesuit. As soon as word of the find had reached Earth, he'd found his team scrambled to investigate. Which wasn't sitting well with him as he STILL felt a little frostbitten around the edges.

"So it is," said Daniel, looking it over.

"This is not Goa'uld in design," said Teal'c.

"How's the pressure tarp, Corporal Norton?" asked Jack over the radio.

"It's set up, we're ready to pressurize now," came the reply.

"Carter?" asked Jack.

Samantha Carter let out a little breath. At least he was talking to her again. "It's strange. Visually it's here. No radar return. Readings are all over the place."

"That's with the NASA equipment," pointed out Daniel. "This is one of the new technical scanners."

"That can't be right," said Samantha, crowding her spacesuit closer to Daniel's in order to look. "Let me try the laser spectrometer."

_VORT_

"It isn't supposed to do that, is it?" asked Jack.

"No, sir, it isn't," admitted Samantha.

"I think now might be a good time to collect data from a suitable vantage point elsewhere," suggested Daniel.

"Sirs?" asked Corporal Norton over the radio. "What's going on? There's distortion in the video feed."

"There appears to be a distortion in space/time at the point the laser struck the object," said Samantha as they began a retreat.

"This might be a good time to prep the shuttles," said Jack.

* * *

He checked his supplies one last time before leaving on the mission.

Grenades - check.  
Spirit wards - check.  
Garrotte, silver plated - check.  
Zat'nik'tel... maybe he ought to leave that behind in reserve. No... better to keep it.  
Collapsible taser stick - check.

Sosuke closed the bag. He was ready for his continuing assignment. High School.

* * *

Captain Matthews wasn't exactly a small man, which did cause him to have to deal with a lot of the usual problems in dealing with seating arrangements. It wasn't like the government was full of relaxing chairs, especially in the military, as there was a need to keep their agents alert and ready to act when needed. So, he had been pleasantly surprised that rather than some stiff backed seat, the captain's chair on the _Elsa_ was a rather comfortable thing with the bridge of the ship being rather large in comparison to the water craft that he'd been on before. So, it was rather pleasant to be in charge of something like this, and he enjoyed the opportunity to sit back and take what comfort he could as he waited for something to happen.

Of course, he didn't expect to have the whine of an alarm start sounding in the place with corresponding red screens quite _that_ quickly.

"Hammer," Matthews barked, "what's going on?"

"I can't tell you right now," the young man in the glasses muttered, tapping buttons.

"Oh? Why's that?"

"I don't know what's happening."

The helmsman snorted and raised his brows at Hammer. "That's not like you. You usually have some sort of idea...."

"The thing is that there is an energy surge there, and the sensors haven't gotten enough to know what it is, other than something having to do with space-time. But there _is_ one thing that we need to keep in mind, Tony."

"Oh? What?"

"You'd better be ready to move the ship."

"And if I don't?"

"You, and the rest of us, might be able to see what it's like when space twists us into spaghetti."

* * *

"It will really be something to see when we get this up and running," Professor Tomoe commented as he looked up at the massive works of the automated factory.

The young man in the suit standing next to him frowned slightly. "I guess so, sir. But wasn't the plan always to start making machinery that can help us?"

"Of course, my dear Ogata. But the fact is that it's one thing to _imagine_ or work hard towards something, but it's another, quite exhilarating, thing to actually see something that you came up with come into fruition."

"I suppose that you're right...."

"What's with that lackluster attitude?" the scientist asked. "After all, it's going to be great to have the first giant robot come off the assembly line."

"'Giant robot'? But I thought that we were going to be making planes, cars, and ships too...."

"We Japanese did come up with a good concept in robots, and remember, they can do a lot of the work that planes, cars, and ships also do. They can also shift balance points according to terrain, and may have the ability to use 'hands' just like a person. Plus, there is one reason in particular to keep in mind."

"What's that?" Ogata asked.

"What else could I make, when faced with a massive automated factory?"

"Oh man. You have to make giant robots, and he makes small ones.... They're both good things, but still...."

"What?"

"Can't anyone make anything human sized any more?"

"Well, it's not like the machines will start grabbing people, but I can see your point. And remember, those sorts of robots are good, but they also need more of a... human touch. Though...."

"What?"

The professor adjusted his glasses so that light reflected off of the lenses. "I'm going to have to remember to inform your regular boss about your... lack of enthusiasm."

"Oh no...." Ogata sobbed, already imagining various possibilities as to the 'penalties' that his usual boss would put upon him.

* * *

Jack O'Neill pulled off his helmet as soon as the inner door to airlock sealed and put it on the nearest available surface. "Tell me how bad this can be for us."

"It could be simply that we'd be teleported to another place or time," Carter commented as she headed over to a console. "Transporting us possibly over a really long distance."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Daniel observed.

"It wouldn't be... if we could be sure that it wouldn't drop us into a star, the middle of nowhere, or something like that. And that's not our biggest worry right now."

"It's not?"

"Not unless you have no problem with every part of your being possibly being torn apart, or sucked into whatever it is that's causing that problem."

"Remind me not to ask next time. Can we just do one thing though?" the colonel muttered.

"What?"

"Get out of here? I mean, I don't mind 'boldly going where no one has gone before' as much as the next guy, but this is a little much for me...."

"Yes, sir. I understand."

"Good. Teal'c?"

"I will endevor to make our exit... quicker," the Jaffa replied, hurrying up to the controls.

"And people think that archeology's 'boring'," Jackson murmured.

"Not after watching 'Indiana Jones'," Jack commented, as the two of them headed for their seats.

* * *

_"Research Team 1, docked."_

"Acknowledged, Research Team. SG-1, can you put a hurry on?" asked Hammer.

_"SG-1 here, we're *crackle*-periencing *crickle* -nd of space/time distortion. Drain*crickle* engine outpu-*crackle*."_

"Damn," said Captain Matthews, toggling his crane-like command chair to move closer to one of the display screens. "We have shields on this thing?"

"Actually, I think we do," said Hammer. "It's just we can't raise them until SG-1 is on board or they won't be able to."

Tony checked his board. "Not that our shields are going to mean a whole lot. Energy output to distort space like that - has to be pretty enormous."

"Yeah, but kind of useless despite that," pointed out Shion, who'd come up to watch things. "If turning the thing on disrupts space like that, you couldn't put it anywhere near a planetary body."

"Whoa, a large chunk of the moon just vanished according to the mass readings," said Tony. "Adjusting position."

"You can't go moving around too much, we've got a shuttle coming in," pointed out Shion.

"It's not US moving," shot back Tony. "Nearby space is altering. Gravity fields are shifting. It's -"

"Yeah, but kind of useless despite that," pointed out Shion, who'd come up to watch things. "If turning the thing on disrupts space like that, you couldn't put it anywhere near a planetary body."

"Whoa, a large chunk of the moon just vanished according to the mass readings," said Tony. "Adjusting position."

"You can't go moving around too much, we've got a shuttle coming in," pointed out Shion.

"It's not US moving," shot back Tony. "Nearby space is altering. Gravity fields are shifting. It's -"

"What the heck?" asked Hammer, lifting his head up. "Did you guys..."

"What the heck?" asked Hammer, lifting his head up. "Did you guys..."

"Ripples in space AND time," responded Shion, looking a bit paler. "Do we have a tractor beam? Can we grab the shuttle?"

"Crack in subspace!" called out Hammer, going into near-absolute panic mode.

Tony grunted as he tried to force the controls into behaving.

"Intersection!" called out Hammer. "We lost a section of hull."

"SG-1 just cleared the outer doors, sealing hatch, and we're off!" said Tony.

* * *

Hotaru winced as she picked herself up. She felt those bruises. She'd been standing near the window, watching with Ranma as...

Panic immediately set in as she realized that she had just been picked up and bodily thrown through a sealing hatchway.

On the other side of that hatchway, Hotaru could see that the hull had been breached.

Of Ranma there was no sign.

* * *

Teletha "Tessa" Tessarossa. Mechanical genius. First-class klutz. Ancient gene and compatibility with Silver Millenium devices. Sixteen year old girl.

Kaname Chidori. Guarded by Sosuke Sagara, despite her frequent complaints. Ancient gene and compatibility with Silver Millenium devices. Sixteen year old girl.

Sosuke Sagara. Raised by mercenaries to a lifetime of war and conflict, unused to and unskilled at peace. Compatibility with Silver Millenium devices. Sixteen year old boy.

Teletha knew she had to do something. Mister Sagara, together with a young girl, alone for much time. Heck, she'd fantasized about it enough - she knew the sorts of things that could happen. They could be doing 'this and that' or WORSE. They could be getting emotionally close.

All the busywork hitting her was doing something regarding that - keeping her busy. She certainly couldn't pursue a relationship if everyone was keeping her running every hour she was awake. Not that she hated the work - it was fascinating and rewarding. Yet if she missed this chance, was she guaranteed another one?

What could she do about it though? She couldn't slip away for any length of time. There was work only she was capable of doing, such as the work on these palladium reactors.

Waitaminute. If Sosuke was posted to guard Kaname, and Teletha couldn't go there...

Teletha's voice was really not suited for diabolic laughter. She just managed a lukewarm-naughty chuckle.

* * *

"We managed to acquire some data," said the courier, setting a small disc on the table.

Gauron's face didn't change from its bored look as he put the disc into his computer and accessed a file. Several bars filled as the de-encryption took place, finally popping up with several different windows of data. "Hmph. Teenage Japanese schoolgirl? Tell your bosses I don't normally do 'pimp' work."

"That isn't the issue," the courier stated. "You have the Millenial Gene which allows you to access certain power sources. There is also an Ancient Gene which allows one to access other special equipment. This girl has both."

Gauron glanced at the courier, his face impassive and eyes colder than a lizard's would be. "Getting her alive will cost extra."

"Half now, half on delivery," said the courier. "Damaged is perfectly fine. Dead is not."

Gauron hmmmed at that. "So why not just contact the Yakuza or some other organized crime group. Why me? Why not those two Chinese chicks?"

"The equipment we supplied you makes you a professional on retainer towards our business," said the courier. "You were the first choice."

Gauron nodded slightly. Still, he was a mercenary and assassin, NOT what he himself would consider ideal for quiet kidnapping. There had to be complications the courier's masters knew of, complications that would make snatching the girl by more normal means an unlikely task. As for the Yu twins, nobody was crazy enough to want to deal with THEIR boss. Not even him.

It WOULD give him the chance to try out some of that equipment though, as well as a nice new payment in his Swiss account. "Okay, deal."

* * *

The BOLO was concerned.

Energy output was above levels that even he could sustain, and he wasn't exactly fragile.

What he could do about the situation wasn't exactly clear. All he could do was monitor as best he could.

* * *

"Oh come on," said Professor Tomoe. "It isn't as if we don't already have three of four lines producing (condescending sniff) conventional vehicles."

"Still, Professor," said the officer, looking as if he was getting a headache.

"I'm Japanese, you know," pointed out Professor Tomoe. "This is part and parcel of Japanese culture! Japanese, genius if eccentric scientist, automated factory on an alien world, giant robots defending the Earth. This HAS to be done!"

"But..." said the officer, making an offhand gesture at the device.

The factory's newly installed AI decided to weigh in. "Raideen has internal frame and major components installed already."

"But..." repeated the officer, glancing at the bay and wincing.

"A respect for tradition is something that all Japanese learn," said the Professor, crossing his arms over his chest and nodding to himself. "Respecting the cultures of others IS something your superiors try to instill in their officers, is it not?"

"But..." repeated the officer.

"Behold, Raideen!" said the Professor, switching to a dramatic flourish. "Able to fly or walk or run or even skate along jets. Earth's newest defender!"

"That isn't it," protested the officer.

"Oh? What is it, then?" asked Professor Tomoe.

"Do you have any idea," asked the officer, "what Colonel Maybourne is going to be like when he sees this?"

* * *

Crystalline structures, some thousands of feet tall, stood impassive against the sky. Electrical crackles through that sky sometimes seemed to find a corresponding echo amongst the structures.

Ranma rapped his knuckles against a green one, then peered through it. Transparent, hard, and he wasn't sure what the stuff was made of.


	22. Chapter 22: Travels and Travails

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Chapter 22: Travels and Travails

* * *

Whatever this place was, Ranma knew that he had an icicle's chance in hell of knowing what it was. By the looks of where he was, it'd give some of the eggheads back at Refuge and the SGC a migraine as they tried to figure out what exactly they'd be looking at. He knew that they'd likely ask him what he'd seen when, or if, he got back, so that they could come up with clues as to where he was, but then it wasn't exactly like there was a subway map with the words 'You are here' printed in big block letters about to show up.

Because of that, he was stuck with wandering around the area, uncertain as to just where he was going. Heading from spot to spot didn't help when the big crystal towers were just about everywhere, and there wasn't an order to them either. All that he knew was that it was just... _there_ and it wasn't exactly going to be a simple job of finding the door out of the place.

Then again, he didn't know if 'here' was just another planet, or if it was something else. What he did know was that the place didn't seem to have a way off of it. It was as if it just was rocks and crystals, both of which might _look_ amazing, but were about as helpful as a towel in a rainstorm.

Still, he hoped to find _something_ that would allow him to get back home. He refused to believe that he couldn't do something as simple as that, especially as it didn't seem that anyone was about to stop him. Sure, there might be some... problems with getting transportation, but he was certain that all that he had to do was find something that would do the job, and that he'd work along from there. The only problem with that plan was that there wasn't exactly a handy craft of any sort lying around, and he didn't have company here to ask for information.

However, there was the sound of something fluttering next to him, and when he turned to look, he got the glimpse of a brown haired boy in a white outfit standing there and looking back at him.

That was mainly the case due to the fact that his attention was suddenly ripped from ground level to look up at the sight of a massive wave of energy heading his way. Images of blues and violet reds were all the impressions that he got as he looked up at the oncoming force, and he didn't know if it was going to crash right over him, wash over his body, or simply pass him by.

His only reaction was to let his eyes go wide, and his throat go raw as he yelled in shock.

* * *

Hotaru's head snapped up and she stared at nothing, but saw a lot in the ways that counted.

She had been still standing in front of the hatchway, but had been letting tears run silently down her cheeks. Despite knowing that it wouldn't make a difference, she berated herself for being unable to do _something_ to at least protect herself. If she had, then he might have been able to come along with her, instead of vanishing as he had. Now she had no idea of where he was, or how he was faring. Instead, she could only imagine what had happened to him, from him ducking into another way out of the compartment, to him being sucked into space, or to him just vanishing into thin air.

In that instant though, only one word was on her lips. "Ranma?"

Why that was, she didn't know.

* * *

Professor Tomoe liked the "number one genius mad scientist" label. He even had a labcoat with the design on it.

"Raideen" had become the name of the Giant Robot.

"Raiden Triad" became the name of the gunship, designed to take on Death Gliders.

"No more Raideen," insisted the Officer.

"What about 'Raideen Alpha'?" suggested the Professor.

"No," said the Officer. "And why does the Triad have more weapons than the engine output can support?"

"Capacitors allow for some limited firing beyond the output, but mainly you wouldn't use ALL the weapons at once, just one or two," said the Professor. "Though maybe if you cut out the air conditioning you could use three. It isn't as if you'd use it against a fleet or something."

* * *

"Report."

"The Tau'ri homeworld has pathetic defenses, and a primitive technology," said the spy. "Their spaceflight is laughably primitive."

"Any weapons which can penetrate shields?" asked the Overseer.

"Nothing. More to the point, they seem to have hidden the Stargate from their own people." The spy sneered. "Their broadcasts seem to indicate that these heathens lack leadership and waste their energies in constant infighting. Destroying them will be easy."

"Continue to monitor," said the Overseer. "Forget not that some of these infidels were able to swat Apophis' nose recently."

"Which merely proves how pathetic Apophis himself is," argued the spy. "These people could not even stop a squad of Death Gliders were they to attack."

"Continue your post, I will relay your suggestion," said the Overseer.

* * *

"Maintain distance," ordered Captain Matthews. "How's the repairs coming?"

"We'll have to wait for drydock," answered Tony. "We lost four meters of armored hull. Engine parts were strained just trying to keep us in place for the shuttle dockings. Ought to replace the sensor web too, we shorted out a good number of Earth-based parts from the energy discharge."

"Everything seems to be quiet now," said Shion, looking over readings. "The artifact, code-named 'Zohar' by Lieutenant Allston, seems to have reacted to a laser spectography attempt in some automatic manner. Probably a self-defense protocol."

"Uh huh," said Captain Matthews. "Next time they try something like that, can we NOT be anywhere near the system?"

"Time and space were severely twisted," said Shion. "Theories are that it utilizes dark energy in some manner, but how and why are still unknown. If the initial data seems accurate, this was done with less than 0.1% of its potential power output."

"How much power is that Zohar capable of pumping out then?" asked Matthews.

Shion didn't look amused. "More than the total output of every star in the galaxy going nova at the same time."

"Good grief," said Matthews.

"Now THIS is interesting," said Shion, pulling up a graphic representation. "The crack in space/time formed and went out like this."

"It looks like a crack all right," agreed Captain Matthews. "It headed straight to the Elsa?"

"More or less, it looks like it targetted that room specifically, at that point it was heading right for..." Shion pulled up the recorded view of the area struck. "What it registered as the biggest threat nearby maybe?"

Nobody was surprised much at all to find Hotaru Tomoe at the center of the point of intersection.

* * *

Ranma Saotome _couldn't_ be gone.

As Hotaru looked over the image of where she'd been when the 'incident' had started, she couldn't help but feel that it was impossible for him to have been taken from her like that. He had been there for as long as she could remember, and there was no one else closer to her. They had been childhood playmates, having spent _all_ the time that they could together, and when she'd been in trouble, it had been Ranma who had rushed in head first to save her, despite not knowing anything about those who had taken her. To her, he was the strong and brave hero who had always been there for her, without reservation or regret.

Yet, she knew that there was a very good chance that, in saving her, he was forever lost to her. Despite knowing that was one of the ways that he would mind going on to the next life with, it wasn't exactly a comfort. In that instant, he had been left to the mercy of whatever it had been that had just happened. Since it didn't seem to care about such things as kindness, she had the one boy who was truly important to her ripped from her side.

It brought up a sense of utter emptiness in her as she couldn't even feel loss at his disappearance. Memories of them playing together ran through her mind, and she just wanted to hold onto all the laughter that they had shared. Over the years, he had been her companion, her friend, and... someone that she had deeply cared about. She had wanted to do so much more with him, and the idea that she might not see him again was something that she simply could not take.

Hotaru's only wish was that it wasn't true, though, she knew that he could have been overwhelmed by something at that very moment.

* * *

Normally, Ranma would have been the sort of guy to face problems head on. That didn't mean that he'd blindly rush in, but that he'd put his mind to working on the problem until he actually managed to deal with it. He wasn't exactly someone to cower, and had the habit of doing little bits of bravado whenever he could.

At the moment though, his head was turned away, and he was braced for an impact that he'd been sure would come.

"You can open your eyes now," said a softly spoken voice.

"Huh?" Ranma grunted, straightening up a bit as he took in the instruction. Pulling back to a standing position, he blinked in confusion at the fact that he had not just been hit by a flying cloud-wave thing. In fact, there were no signs of destruction around him, and the main change to his situation was the fact that there was a white haired boy who was standing in the direction the voice had come from. "Uhh.... Okay.... What just happened?"

"You met U-DO," the boy told him.

"'Ooo-Doh'?"

"Not quite. But that doesn't matter right now. What does is that you've been... touched."

"'Touched'? How?"

"You might say that it's a brush against something with Power. What you just faced was something that you really don't want to contemplate."

"You ain't sayin' that I'm stupid, right?"

A small smile curved the other boy's mouth. "Of course not. The truth is that even some of the most brilliant people that you know might not understand it even after getting an explanation."

"And you do."

"You might say that."

"Then, who are you?" the pigtailed boy asked.

"You can call me... chaos."

"Okay then.... If ya know so much, where are we?"

"You might say that you've gone on a _long_ trip here," chaos told him, looking rather apologetic as he did so. "Unfortunately, you can't just fly home from this place."

"Just great," Ranma grumbled, blowing out a breath of frustration.

* * *

The ship was about as manueverable as a pregnant whale. No, it was worse that that.

"So we're essentially cut off from everything while we're in transit," noted one technician, wiping grime off one of his wrenches.

"Yup," responded another, likewise doing maintenance work with her tools.

"Sounds like the plot of a horror movie," said the guy, a little nervously. Not that being in an ancient ship with only partial restored power, light-years from Earth, with an untested drive system, trying to get their cargo back to Earth before parasite-infested bad guys could attack, would make him nervous. No, hardly. It was just... lack of sleep lately.

"Yeah, I suppose," said the other technician, shrugging in such a way that her sizable cleavage moved in a distracting manner. SHE certainly wasn't such a wimp that she'd allow such things to get to her. "You're letting your nerves get to you. We've been all over this ship AND the ships we pulled into the hold."

"Yeah, I suppose," said the male technician, putting his tools away.

"There's nothing to worry about, fraidy-cat," chided the female technician, thumping a wall with her hand.

_FLINK!_

"The lights all went out," helpfully pointed out the male technician.

_GLOMP!_

The robot dog considered telling the two that it was just a loose connection. The robot dog considered telling the two that there was absolutely nothing nearby to indicate the presence of anything threatening. The robot dog considered what the two scared people were beginning to do in the dark, and decided that it really would be best if he didn't remind them of his presence. Organic beings sometimes just had to purge certain things from their systems after all.

* * *

Haruka strolled around the airfield deliberately. She had been invited after all.

"The airshow's tomorrow," said Michiru, "I expected more preparations."

"Oh wow, deep fried twinkies!" said Haruka. "I haven't had one of those in..."

Michiru merely looked pained. Some of the food vendor stalls had been set up, and some of what they sold she would barely classify as food.

A soldier hailed them and pointed them towards where the racers had been prepped for the contestants to try them out prior to the race.

"One day to get used to the performance isn't very much time," complained Michiru.

"Part of their plan," reasoned Haruka. "They're looking for top-notch civilian pilots who can adapt to different vehicles quickly."

"That's an interesting idea," said Michiru, nodding as it sounded right to her.

"It occurred to me a couple of days ago," said Haruka. "Just a suspicion, but from what we saw that one night - it fits if they're also looking for people with special talents."

Michiru nodded. Yes, they probably were looking for Senshi as well. What they intended to do with such when they found them - the two were not entirely clear on those details.

"Ah, so that's them," said Haruka as she spotted the vehicles all lined up.

Michiru merely smiled in amusement as Haruka outpaced her briefly to go over the minijet. One man, small, V-winged. Her aesthetic sense was pleased with the graceful lines it mainly was composed of.

Michiru's smile faded as she watched a small dog, a beagle if she was not mistaken, who seemed to examine a plane. Then the dog shook his head and walked off.

The dog stopped at the street, looked both ways, then trotted across to the next building. A sliding door opened ahead of him, and the dog went in as if he owned the place.

"You saw that?" asked Michiru.

"Hmmm? No, I was checking out the instrument panel," said Haruka.

"There was a beagle wearing a WWI flying helmet who was looking at the planes and acting atypical of such dogs," summed up Michiru.

"Do you want to investigate while I try to distract attention?" asked Haruka. That was how they did it in spy novels, wasn't it?

* * *

"The universe isn't ready for me to go back yet," said chaos. "My time is not yet. Your time is not over. Yet here we are."

"Okay," said Ranma, tapping another of the crystalline towers. "Where is here?"

"How do I explain this?" asked chaos. "This is a higher order dimension."

"Like that hyperspace stuff the ships go through?" asked Ranma.

"Umm, not quite, but I suppose that will have to do," said chaos, his gentle voice registering some regret.

Regret over what, Ranma had no idea. "So what's an 'oo-dough' and why did it try to frag me?"

"'frag' you?" asked chaos.

"Hey, I hang around some of them Marines, they got a real colorful way of talkin'," admitted Ranma.

"U-DO is a collective unconscious, but very powerful," said chaos. "You are here in its realm because the Zohar tried to throw your friend in here. A defensive measure of sorts."

"Huh," asked Ranma, figuring that any more explanations would be like the last two. Something Hotaru's father or that Carter gal might be able to make sense out of, but definitely outside his area of expertise. He'd just have to try and remember some of it later so he could tell them about it and let THEM try to make sense of it. "Well, I wasn't about to let it hurt Hotaru."

chaos acknowledged that with a slight inclination of his head. "You cannot return to your lower dimension as you were, only as you are. It is impossible to come here and remain unchanged."

"Yeah yeah," said Ranma, dismissing that. "Can't change the past and all. I got that much. Hey, don't look so surprised, I been watchin' American TV to help learn that English stuff - some of their scifi got that whole time travel stuff down."

"I just didn't think you'd be the type to go for American science fiction," admitted chaos.

"Nah, not normally," said Ranma agreeably. "It's just when you're dealin' with that scifi stuff in real life - it takes on a certain... 'relevance' I think is the word."

chaos inclined his head again, acknowledging the point.

* * *

"You know, for being some sort of 'other level', or whatever, this place ain't so bad," Ranma commented, putting his hands behind his head as he strolled along.

That drew a small smile from chaos. "What makes you say that?"

"Simple. There isn't anythin' out there tryin' ta eat, shoot, or possess me."

"More American science fiction?"

"More of my life. There are some big things out there with big appetites, I've been shot at a lot, and I'm pretty sure that there's gotta be one of those Goa'uld guys who'd think that I'd be a good host. Bleh. I'd hate that last one the most, ya know."

"That _is_ understandable," chaos allowed.

"Still, it _is_ kind of a dull place ta get stuck in."

"True, but there is something that I want to do while you are here."

"What'd that be?"

"I want to show you some... techniques. Ones that could help you fight better."

"Really?" the martial artist yelped as his eyes grew wide. "Ya ain't kiddin'?"

"I thought that it would do well to pass the time. And... I don't want to fight. But you do, and what I know can help...."

"Let's get started then!"

"You don't mind?" chaos asked with a blink.

"Heck, no! This'll help me be a better fighter, right?"

"Yes, it should."

"So, I figure that it'll be good ta try."

"Well then, let's begin. With healing works included...." chaos trailed off.

"If it'll help me help Hotaru, I'm all for it."

* * *

There wasn't much light in the room, but that was the way that Hotaru wanted it. She sat with her legs pulled up in front of her as she pressed her forehead to her knees. Silence ruled, and one could feel a stillness in the air that was both dark and heartbreaking. With Ranma gone, she had lost the one person that she'd been most connected to, and the pain of her likely loss clearly weighed heavily on her slim shoulders.

Not even the sound of the door opening broke her closed off little focus. She was too caught up in those memories when she'd last saw him to pay much attention to anything else. Going out into the world would be hard, as she knew that he would not be there for her to talk to.

Yet, the outside world still intruded, and a voice sounded nearby. "Hotaru?"

"Huh?" the violet eyed girl murmured, looking up to see Captain Carter leaning over near her. With her were the three men of SG-1, each of whom were looking at the delicate girl with clear concern. "Why did you...."

"You see, we heard about... you know. What happened. And we thought it best if we came to check up on you. This sort of thing isn't good to handle alone," Daniel told her.

"Indeed," Teal'c concurred simply.

"So, figure it this way. It'll be best for you if we're here to... do that supporting thing," Colonel O'Neill commented, giving off a pained attempt at a reassuring smile. "It's best to not keep away from those who want to help you."

"But...." Hotaru began.

"Hey. No 'but'. We're here for you kid, and remember, crying for those close to you isn't a bad thing."

The dark haired girl glanced from him to the other SG-1 members, who nodded back at her. Then she turned to look up at the colonel again, trying mightily to sniff back her tears as she clutched at his shirt. "But he was supposed to be here to hold me too...."

"I know."

With that, the gates fell, and she began to bawl as she pressed her face into Jack's chest. His face twisted a bit as he tried to deal with the awkwardness of the situation, but instinct quickly took over as he put his arms around her and held her. A glance over at his teammates let him see their looks of agreement, though it was clear that they knew just how hard it was to deal with the fact that Ranma Saotome was missing, and presumed lost.

"I want him back!" Hotaru sobbed.

"I know...." Jack murmured to her, and stroked the back of her head.

* * *

She did not understand many things about human society, non-mechanized sentients, and many other things. She was a combat unit who understood combat very well, she understood mechanical designs pretty well, and she understood the basics of anatomy and biology pretty well too.

The Hotaru was undergoing some malfunction caused by the absence of her bodyguard, the Ranma who had executed his bodyguard function by taking an attack meant for Hotaru. She understood the basics, but not the feelings. Emotions were inefficient, illogical, and seemed more hindrance than help.

KOS-MOS blinked her red eyes at the sight of SG-1 attempting to assist Hotaru through this emotion-based malfunction, and attempted to understand it. She knew that one of the problems that these humans and others had with interacting with her was her lack of emotive routines and responses. In this way she could accumulate more data with which to base new emotive-emulating subroutines.

When she felt she had enough data compiled, KOS-MOS moved on. She would not try to assist Hotaru through such means as she did not rate her success rate as very high.

Instead she found her way to a lift at the back of the Elsa and took it to the hull. She did not require air unless she wished to speak, and such was not deemed necessary at present.

Her feet stuck to the hull, and she regarded the moon and nearby space as she began scanning. If she found the location of the Ranma, she would be able to recover his body and determine if lifesigns were still present. A normal biological human would not be able to survive in space for this length of time, but as KOS-MOS had discovered during her nonlethal-parameters practice-match - Ranma had upgraded his combat profile significantly from what was considered normal. Therefore his survival could be assigned a low probability value, but not completely dismissed.

* * *

Michiru found a door ajar and suspected a trap, but then maybe the door had been left that way for the beagle. It certainly couldn't close doors behind it, could it?

Finding a lift slowly returning to the top, Michiru realized someone had built under the base. Which was unusual in a land frequently experiencing earthquakes.

Michiru debated herself over using her transformation pen. She might need the enhanced speed, leaping abilities, and strength. On the other hand she might be better off not being Sailor Neptune when/if discovered.

She grasped the cool metal of the pen and said her transformation phrase. Better that she avoid any guards entirely.

* * *

"She's taken the bait," said Cadet Ichijo.

"For a kid, she's got a pretty good figure," said Captain Fokker.

"Pity that her boyfriend is still on the field," said Ichijo.

"Japanese girls like those pretty boy types, don't they?" asked Fokker. "Ah, well."

"He's a she, you know," said Lieutenant Grant.

"Yeah," said Fokker. "But the way she dresses and acts, I figured she was gender dysphoric. You ought to be more tolerant of other people's lifestyles. Maybe she can have the operation down the road."

"Ick," said Ichijo.

* * *

Haruka sneezed a couple of times, then frowned.

It wasn't a feeling that she'd expect as if Michiru was going into a trap. More like... she wasn't sure what it meant.

She eyed the building Michiru had gone into, then returned her attention to the controls. She was going to distract everyone from Michiru's exploration by taking to the air and putting this minijet through its paces.

She needed to get started.

* * *

Okay, she'd wanted evidence of what was going on. After seeing that blonde Senshi transform an airplane into something different, she had known that the local military was getting involved with the Senshi and not in the way she would have expected.

Sailor Neptune looked over the twin-seater that was nearest the lift and knew SOMETHING was going on. It looked like a vehicle from a Star Wars movie, except that this was clearly not made as a full-scale mockup of a fictional craft. The military figures working on the vessel were sufficient indication of that.

"It still looks a bit like a 'D-Wing'," said one of the technicians.

"Nah," said the other technician. "Not really. More like an A-Wing modified for a pilot and navigator-slash-tailgunner."

"So what do you think? Top speed?"

"Guessing in excess 1000 kay-pee-ess at top," said the second tech. "That is IF the Senshi can run across it and enhance it like Sailor V did hers."

"Cool," said the first tech.

Sailor Neptune frowned. If she told Haruka about this, her lover would likely be trying to do that very thing.

"Think we'll be able to get them?" asked the first tech.

"I think the brass is hoping," said the second tech. "When does the brass ever really know what they're doing?"

"I dunno I - did you hear something?"

Sailor Neptune hugged the wall a little tighter after her aborted sneeze.

"You're both daft," said a third technician, coming out from an engine he had apparently crawled completely into. "It's more like an 'E-Wing' with a tail mounted rail gun."

"So which Senshi are we building this for?" asked the first tech.

"Don't know," said the second tech. "We're just little peasant-peons in the greater scheme of things. I just hope we're around if the gals go for it. I'd at least like to see this baby fly."

"Less talk, more work," said the third, crawling back into the engine. "We got to get this ready for tomorrow when we can 'accidently' leave a few doors open."

"I'd be a lot happier if it weren't teenage girls we're putting at the front of a battle for all our lives," bemoaned the first. "They should be going to school, getting their first boyfriends, worrying about exams. Not defending the Earth from dark menaces from outer space."

"You're just envious," said the second tech. "Not that I can blame you. Shooting alien tentacle monsters or whatever in a war for survival of the human race? Makes it hard to be just one of the rank-and-file that'll only see space in a TV screen."

Sailor Neptune quietly let out a breath and began making her way back to Haruka. She'd gotten her 'intel' all right. Now if she could just manage to let Haruka know about it without Haruka wanting to come barging right back down and peering over the technician's shoulders.

Before she left though, she peeked over to get a look at the two still visible, frowning thoughtfully.

"HEY!" yelped one of the techs. "I saw someone! Over there!"

Sailor Neptune fled. Okay, maybe they weren't completely oblivious.

* * *

Ever since she'd transformed for the first time, Sailor Neptune had known that her 'Senshi' wasn't exactly the most dignified. Sure, it looked great on her, but it also hadn't been put together to be used as special operations gear. That the rather short skirt showed off her legs, and the outfit was tight enough to her body to show off her curves meant that she was going to be showing herself off every time that she fought. If she hadn't known better, she would have said it was made for letting guys leer at her, not sneaking around. Not that she'd particularly minded being watched by hormonal guys. It was easy to ignore them, and she'd merely been amused by the antics of the boys who would try to come after her.

She wasn't smiling at the moment.

Having the speed and leaping power of her Senshi form had helped her to loose the two men that she knew had detected her presence. But she certainly didn't want them to have a way to catch up to her, as that would be a bad thing. They could have been good guys, but to find her like this would make even the most generous soul rather concerned. Should that happen, she might wind up causing them to think that there were enemy Senshi around, and if they came to that conclusion, they'd be out looking for her before she could turn back to her 'civilian form'.

Getting into that sort of trouble would be a bad thing right then, and she didn't want to cause an incident right in the middle of the airshow. To do so would be inelegant, and so she slipped along the crates, and headed for a back part of the hangar. Being able to move to a back door would allow her to swing around and get back as Michiru Kaioh as soon as possible. Then they wouldn't have any reason to focus on her, and she could pass on the information to Haruka before some new trouble arrived.

Instead, she stopped and gaped at a large open space in the hangar, sliding to a stop on her heels. The fact that there was a sizable chunk of open space in there wasn't a surprise. Seeing what looked like a plane akin to an F-14 wasn't a shock either. To be honest, those were rather reassuring, seeing as they were being done on a military base.

What was odd was the fact that there was a nice little backside with two slim legs hanging over the edge of an engine block. For a moment there, she couldn't see if they were attached to them, but then the owner of said limbs pulled her head out from under a hatch, and slid to the floor to stand on her feet, wiping a smudge of dirt off of her face. And that caused the Senshi to have yet another reason to stare.

Instead of some adult mechanic, the girl standing there looked to be about twelve to thirteen years old, at least. She was very pretty, and was likely rather tempting to any potential suitors, with the indicators that she'd be a knockout when she'd get older. However, instead of going to school, or having lovesick boys after her, she was apparently acting as a... a... a 'grease monkey'.

Then the girl with the lustrous ebony hair opened her mouth, and removed all doubt as to her reason for being there. "This'll never work... wait a minute. Maybe if I shift this, and do that, and work this, and use subspace pockets...."

Seeing what looked like a girl on the verge of womanhood working on an aircraft many times her size was not something that Neptune saw every day.

* * *

Not being able to fly her P-chan was something that rather depressed Minako, as she really liked soaring through the clouds with her aircraft. It was all hers, and she loved how it responded to her. If nothing else, it felt like they were one, and she liked it a lot.

Yet, when the military had asked her to do this, she had agreed wholeheartedly. She didn't mind flying other planes, and it was actually quite fun for her. Finding enjoyment in it was not asked for, but it was gotten, as she knew that showing off would be something welcome for her.

And as she was being shown in a recruiting video for women, she smiled as she took off, hearing the song that she'd chosen play as she did so.

I like to dream yes, yes, right between my sound machine  
On a cloud of sound I drift in the night  
Any place it goes is right  
Goes far, flies near, to the stars away from here

Well, you don't know what we can find  
Why don't you come with me little girl  
On a magic carpet ride  
You don't know what we can see  
Why don't you tell your dreams to me  
Fantasy will set you free  
Close your eyes girl  
Look inside girl  
Let the sound take you away

* * *

KOS-MOS didn't need to keep herself occupied as she worked, and she didn't get 'bored'. Those were human emotions, and she didn't need to get them. She had a job to do, and do it she would.

So, she continued to scan for some sigh, _any_ sign, that Ranma was still around. It would be difficult, given that his physical volume wasn't that much, but then, she didn't do 'frustration'.

And her perseverance paid off soon enough. As she scanned the area, she discovered what seemed to be a glitch in her systems. At first, she thought that it was merely a reaction caused by reflected energy systems, or 'background noises' spiking, especially as it registered so little on her standard sensors. However, it didn't go away, and it was on a straight line between where the ship had been, and where the Zohar had been resting.

That led her to really scan the spot that she'd found, and when she determined what it was, all her attention went to focus on only that. When one looked through a spot in space, one normally didn't have the readings of a different sort of area show up. With such interference, there was only one sort of explanation, and she could easily determine what it was once she knew where to look for it.

On the same path that something would have had to take from the Zohar to the _Elsa_ was a time-space anomaly, which naturally shouldn't have been there.

Realizing the importance of what this meant, she turned her attention totally on to handling what was going on. It was like a drawbridge was open, which meant that there could be something, or someone on the other side. And if that was the case, then there were better things for her to do other than stand out on the ship's hull.

Knowing that time was of the essence, she decided to move.

* * *

Minako Aino, had things progressed normally, would be back in Japan. She would have been embroiled in a fight with the Dark Kingdom. She would be attending Junior High, and trying to fit in.

Instead she was walking off of the tarmac in a place called Yuma, having just completed a short recruitment video for the US Air Force (there was talk about a variant using the footage that would go to the JSDF) that would be on national TV. It would show an F-14 going through a long set of aerobatic manuevers, landing, and then the pilot would stand up and pull off her helmet.

The hierarchy was still arguing about the tagline at the end. "The Air Force - There's Never Been A Better Time" was one. Minako herself favored "Women Should Know Their Place. (And if you decide that's in the cockpit of a fighter jet, this is the place.)" Apparently a lot of people didn't like that one as they thought it could be sound-byted against them. Whatever. Minako was happy to take her mind off of the death of Hotaru's friend.

She was also getting paid for this, which was a major difference from where she'd have been. It wasn't a HUGE paycheck, Sailor Senshi or whatever she was still underage for most official roles so she was just listed as a Specialist Trainee. So all she was getting was $1278/month.

To Minako though - that was big bucks. There was a bonus for this, because this was a volunteer duty and she was a civilian. Admittedly, with all the budget problems they had - it was in a non-liquid asset.

* * *

Shion watched the monitor. "What is she doing?"

"Apparently there's some sort of 'crack' in space/time," said Hammer. "A left-over from the attack that hit us. 5000 meters away, about 0.75 meters wide by 2.31 meters high. Depth... not applicable."

"Not applicable?" asked Tony.

"It's two-dimensional," said Shion, looking over Hammer's shoulder.

"I wouldn't have been able to find it except that KOS-MOS is scanning pretty intensely in that direction," admitted Hammer. "It's not big enough for a shuttle. Heck, it'd be a trick getting a space suit through that."

"KOS-MOS, NO! IT'S NOT SAFE!" called out Shion as she saw the gynoid launch herself towards the crack.

"'Safe' - what a novel concept THAT has been of late," said Captain Matthews as he watched. "Tony. Stand ready. At any sign of a reaction from that 'crack', I want you to hit emergency speed and evasive. Course- as far away as we can get."

* * *

What he was doing was taking his current arts and moving them into entirely new levels of power. Meditation and contemplation had never been his strong suits, but chaos had been insistent that to reach his full potential - he had to go there. With chaos' help, his chakras had been strengthened, the floodgates made stronger. Opening each chakra in turn allowed him access to levels of power he had sought.

Sahasrara - Awareness/Space. Ranma hadn't acquired this talent yet. chaos informed him that this might be his most powerful and useful technique if he attained his full potential. At the very least level, he'd be able to find flaws and weaknesses in solid materials. At the most powerful, if he could even attain it, he could become Aware of his surroundings in a way few ever could.

Ajna - Intuition/Time. Another talent beyond Ranma's grasp, at least for now. He could already speed himself up considerably, but as he understood it he could increase this speed a thousandfold if he mastered this chakra. chaos had said something about Western Christmas songs, but Ranma hadn't understood the reference.

Vishuddha - Communication/Life. Communication with his body, he could shift his strength and speed, accelerate healing. He already had this to some extent, but it had been enhanced in this training. Ranma thought if necessary he could shut himself down into a near-death hibernation state. Which might be handy if, for example, he was ever buried in a rockslide or in some Goa'uld prison.

Anahata - Balance/Air. The ability to fight off disease and parasitic organisms was also under this dominion, but using emotion to fuel up a chi attack? It had possibilities, Ranma could admit that. What emotion to use though?

Manipura - Digestion/Fire. Converting food into fuel, heck - that was one of his favorite activities. The refueling part, that is. Apparently he could build a reservoir of chi by manipulating this chakra, and as the newest and most useful techniques burned chi like a Formula-1 racer burned its fuel - that was a good thing.

Swadhisthana - Creativity/Water. Also sex, but Ranma didn't see much use for that. Still, he could build a second reservoir of chi out of this chakra - especially for emotion-oriented techniques. This Soul Of Ice thing that chaos felt was something Ranma should develop seemed to have its roots here for whatever reason.

Muladhara - Instinct/Earth. Survival. Fight or flight. Rapid response. The trigger that could push the rest into motion in some ways.

After a particularly painful sparring match, Ranma found a stream of cold silver. "This another of them metaphor thingies?"

"Exactly," said chaos, apparently unconcerned from where he was leaning against a pillar. "You don't want to drink from that."

"Howcome?" asked Ranma, who was thinking if it was big enough he'd have gone swimming.

"It's a stream of energy," said chaos. "It could kill you, or it could force open a chakra. I certainly wouldn't recommend... oh, now you've done it."

_thump_.

Ranma lay there on the "ground" where he'd landed for a few moments, then exhaled a ring of smoke. "oh man. owie."

"I believe a human philosopher once said 'that which does not kill you makes you stronger'," said chaos, thinking that philosophy fit neatly into what he'd seen of Genma Saotome's ideas of childraising.

"Did he say something about how much it could hurt?" said Ranma from where he continued to lie.

"No, I don't believe he did," said chaos. "However 'that which does not kill you can still be very painful' isn't quite as quotable."

"I dunno, I think it might be one of those 'universal truth' thingies," said Ranma.

"That might be so," allowed chaos. "Ready for another round?"

"Hang on, I think I could use a minute or two to finish healing," said Ranma. "How much time has passed outside?"

"A little over six hours," said chaos. "The time rate is currently stable, so we've only been at this six months. You're doing very well for such a short time."

"Hey, if I didn't milk this for every moment, my Pops would give me all sorts of grief," said Ranma. "Maybe a nap would be good though..."

chaos smiled a little, then lifted his head. Someone was coming. This would be very interesting indeed.

* * *

Sailor Neptune felt less than elegant when her booted foot found a little puddle of molecular grease. After an alarming thud, a quick slide, and a painful stop, she looked up into the eyes of the little girl who seemed to be concerned.

"Uhm, hi?" asked the little girl.

"Hello," said Sailor Neptune.

"You're not supposed to be here, are you?" asked the little girl.

"Well, no, not really," admitted Sailor Neptune.

"I'm Skuld," said the little girl. "I'm from the Vanir. I was given permission to come here with any assistants I might need. You know what that means?"

"No," admitted Neptune, still having a headache and considerable trepidation.

Skuld handed her an odd wrench-like device. "Help me attach the transphasic adaptor here, assistant."

* * *

Haruka Ten'ou threaded the first gate in the center, but went through the second and third with a wingtip just brushing the lights that formed a triangular gate in the air.

This, she thought, was fairly cool. The race required best time, and clearing these "gates" formed of three lasers intersecting through a thin mist that made them visible in the day. There were four gates one had to clear, followed by a "straight shot" towards the finish line.

All her attention was focussed on this procedure, with an unfamiliar but very responsive snubjet. Fuel limitations would keep anyone from doing anything excessive and the obvious strategy was to be as efficient as possible until this final stretch - then burn off all your fuel in one last blast.

Haruka was a racer by nature and was already going over all the potential strategies and tweaks that would offer an advantage.

She was sure she'd know if Michiru were in trouble though. She'd simply know. Since that wasn't the case, she was free to concentrate on the current activity.

Afterburners were... here. "YeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeHAW!"

* * *

"So this is...?" asked Sailor Neptune.

"Transforming giant robot, capable of assuming three forms," said Skuld, adjusting something that Neptune found her eyes wouldn't quite focus on.

Neptune stopped tightening down a bolt to squint her eyes. Didn't seem to help. Every time she tried to focus in on the gadget and follow a line or seam it seemed to slip off in some odd way.

"Your planet has some wonderful ideas, but a frightening gap between the idea and the principles of how to make it happen," said Skuld. "I mean just something like this, which really violates the whole one form/one function path of technology..."

"Which is?" asked Neptune, wincing as just trying to follow a single line on the gadget was causing twinges of headache to pop up.

"In order to maximize efficiency, any particular device is devoted to a single purpose," said Skuld. "The Aesir follow the same philosophy, as do your own people, though sometimes you seem to lose track of that. Your military jets are an example. You have interceptors and bombers and missile carriers, each designed for a specific role. This sort of adaptable vehicle is just absolutely WRONG."

Sailor Neptune considered pointing out that the girl in question seemed to be building it anyway, but decided she was getting too much of a headache.

* * *

"You going to call off the search?" asked Ichijo.

"No," said Fokker. "The less people in on the fact we wanted her down there, the better. Though I am disappointed."

"That the other one didn't go with them?" asked Grant.

"No, that the video of her transformation sequence is fuzzy," said Fokker. "Ah well, such is life."

* * *

Sometimes cliches came to life, and there was a warehouse where one such stereotype was happening. It was not the sort of building that one would think would be holding the equipment for a strong strike force, what with its grimy old windows and bare bulb lighting, but it was cheap, and not well visited. In fact, the run down nature of the place meant that there was little reason for anyone to come there.

That suited Gauron just fine. He had needed a place where he could get his men together before the mission, and a place like this was a good fit for someone like him. Unlike some, he didn't need some fancy base with the latest gizmos to give him what he wanted, though he wouldn't have refused one if it had been given to him. Though, he had to admit that he didn't really care where he was, so long as he got to do what he wanted to do.

Even the company wasn't exactly the best at the moment, but he hadn't needed friends. What he wanted was disposable grunts, and that's what he'd gotten. The men sitting on crates and folding chairs all around him were all mercenaries, each one being someone who would sell his loyalty to whomever was willing to pay for it. At the moment, that meant him, and they'd do what he'd tell them to until their contracts were up. Not that he cared, as they weren't important to him. At the moment, he had a bigger concern than making nice with a bunch of idiots like these guys.

He had a job to do.

"What are we going after?" asked one man.

Another leaned forward. "High technology? A strategic base?"

"Neither," Gauron told them, closing his eyes and giving a small sniff. "We're going to be visiting someone."

"All of us... for a visit?"

"Of course. After all, we'll be crashing the party, so to speak."

"Yeah?" went the mercenary.

"It's really quite simple. We go and find this person, and then we... convince them to come with us."

"All we have to do is... kidnap someone?"

"If you can manage it. And you'll be helping me. Getting the target will be my job."

"And what would we do while you get away with that person? Playing with the bystanders?"

A smile that would rob others of warmth curved Gauron's lips. "Hey, I have no problem with that. Do as you like. Rob, steal, pillage.... It's fine by me. And if there are any skirts there, have a ball."

"You wouldn't mind?"

"So long as you don't cause me a headache, and let me take our target to the drop off point, that's fine by me."

Grins and grunts of amusement rumbled through the group of mercenaries, as they started imagining what they might find during the job.

Gauron's icy smile became a sneer as he dismissed the worth of the men with him. They were cannon fodder, and not worth thinking about. He already had his own students, and didn't need these guys for more than he'd already asked of them. If they wanted to go think with the head between their legs, he wasn't about to stop them. Rather, he was simply going to avoid it himself.

By what he knew, there was not a single girl who could give him problems in the entire galaxy.

* * *

It was like a jagged line torn in the very fabric of reality. Light trickled from the glowing weak point, bathing the space around it in that soft light. By any measurements, it was clearly not a natural thing, as the energy simply did not behave as it should have. Instead of dispersing out amongst the starts, it stayed together in a sort of coalesced form, and clearly would fade out before any of its light really headed for the reaches of the universe.

None of this mattered to KOS-MOS. She came to a stop mere meters from the crack, and looked it carefully up and down. Others might have simply thought that she was giving it a once over, but she had her sensors scanning every little bit of it that she could get a view of. However, that didn't help her much, given that her readings were actually quite new in the field of physics, and she didn't really care about such things. Instead, she knew that there was a certain individual that she had to find, and so she did it. There was only one way to do it, and that was the most direct path.

Self doubt and worry were not things that went through KOS-MOS' mind at that point. She had a job to do, and she was going to do it. So, with little ceremony, or hesitation, she slid her left arm into the tear. When she pulled it back, it looked to be none the worse for wear, as it still functioned, and hadn't changed in looks.

That left only a single option, and so she moved forward from where she had been hanging in front of the tear.

Focusing her attention on what she was about to do, she went back to the glowing jagged line, and _pushed_ into it, letting her shove her weight into going into that line. The glow grew brighter, and light streamed all around her as she continued to press onwards. In doing so, she sank into the the tear like it was water to swim in.

* * *

Ranma looked up and blinked at the odd near lightning that crackled across the sky above him. "What is that?"

"Looks like your ride is here," chaos idly answered.

* * *

KOS-MOS was disoriented, something that had never happened to her before.

Readings of the environment were either contradictory or exceeding normal parameters. Data made no sense.

KOS-MOS tried to understand what was going on, and impacted the "ground" shoulder-first as distances and gravitational fields seemed to shift at random.

Radar pulses seemed to indicate that she was encased in a bubble of space 3.215 meters across with a solid reflective surface beyond that. Life-readings indicated two nearby humanoids, but one-many-huge-small at distance error-unexpected-value.

AlertAlertAlert: Lifesign Reading Approaching Rapidly. Distance: Error. Speed: Error. Unable to Analyze.

* * *

chaos frowned slightly, his gaze focussed up in the direction of the "tear" in space. "Okay. That isn't good."

"What isn't good?" asked Ranma.

"U-DO has just swallowed KOS-MOS." chaos blinked and turned his attention to Ranma. "You're going to fight?"

"Have to," said Ranma. "KOS-MOS is kinda cold and all, but she's a team-mate."

"How are you going to do that?" asked chaos.

"Well, the Moko Takabisha has a range of four feet," said Ranma, who did have an emotion-based attack. Just not a very effective one. "Demon King Retribution (Kijin Raishu Dan) is a little better, but that's only ten yards or so - tops."

"That's because your Moko Takabisha draws on confidence," said chaos. "You're not that confident."

"Well, of course not," admitted Ranma. "I'm fighting guys who have spaceships and laser cannons and stuff. It also don't get decent penetration or nothing."

"What about other emotions?" asked chaos, turning his attention back to where the sky seemed to be roiling.

"Don't know," further admitted Ranma. "Fear is straight out. So is anger or hate. Can't rely on 'em. What's desire to protect?"

"That's part of compassion, and it would lend itself better to a defensive or healing ability," said chaos.

"So that's right out too," said Ranma. "Though those might be handy too."

"So what is your plan?" suggested chaos.

Ranma let out a deep breath. He didn't like this suggestion when he'd first heard it, but if it allowed him to better protect Hotaru and improved his control of the Art and let him rescue KOS-MOS. "Yeah. I gotta plan. Ya said there was a lotta raw power around here."

"That is so," agreed chaos. "There's a lot of raw everything here. As I mentioned, this is a higher order dimension than what you are used to."

"Right, kinda like hyperspace without the 'zoom'," said Ranma, still not clear on a lot of the details. "Thing is, as I understand it, Hotaru gets her Saturn-stuff from some energy stream like some of this stuff."

"All the Sailor Senshi, including the ones from out of your solar system, have worlds that supply them power and are tuned to a specific concept," agreed chaos.

"You know a lot about this," said Ranma, sweeping his hand to indicate the area they were in. "And ya said that the universe I came from wasn't ready for ya yet."

"That is so," agreed chaos. "Are you suggesting..."

Ranma thumped the ground with the heel of one foot. "I'm saying, how about you link me up to THIS world like Hotaru's linked to hers."

"I can't do that," said chaos. "It would burn you out, leaving less than a cinder. Hotaru can only handle the power she's accessing because of very specialized transformation parameters, her Star Seed, and even then it has the side effect that her health isn't as good as it could be."

"Uh huh," said Ranma. He understood that all of those Senshi gals had something like that, but he'd also met that Mamoru guy who had SOME talents. Throwing roses was kinda silly. Throwing roses that could imbed themselves in walls - well it was still silly but also kinda cool. "I can't handle the power of this place, but YOU can."

chaos raised an eyebrow, seeing where Ranma was going with this. "Interesting."

* * *

Tessa walked around the device carefully. The Ancients had used several avenues of exploration as they'd sought their way to this Ascension. The Vanir apparently had a different method. The Silver Millenium had explored a third avenue.

THIS was an orb which had three curved extensions like funnels which curved up from equidistant points on the equator, nearly met over the orb, and then extended outward to point away from that central plane.

It looked weird, but from what she could tell, the purpose was even more bizarre. It was something meant to awaken a particular esper potential, and was something developed by the Silver Millenium attempting to unlock something of the Ancient gene's full abilities.

Even quiescent, this device was beginning to put out some odd effects. Just touching it apparently had begun the awakening.

The thing was, it's reactions were what they had used to determine if someone had the genetic markers for both Silver Millenium and Ancient technology. It had made the rounds of the schools, where it had been mostly hidden and had been part of a 'sensor chair' (using a medscanner from the American StarGate program) as part of a sharing of information with the Americans.

Well, technically she was American herself. Austrian-Swiss heritage. Even if she had spent considerable time in areas outside of the American mainland.

Her brother had lit the device up with an angry-looking red. She herself had shown a ghostly silver light within the device. Kaname Chidori in muted blue-greens. What the colors meant were uncertain.

What was certain was that since then, she'd had dreams and sometimes whole ideas about technological innovation that just seemed to bubble up from nowhere. This had not been intended, there hadn't been a thing in the deciphered text that the device was for anything other than testing. Yet she now KNEW it was intended as a key to unlock potential.

Teletha "Tessa" Testarossa was considering the device. What other secrets it may contain. Why it had been locked and sealed away and not used. Was it merely because the ability was uncontrolled?

Whatever the case, she needed to know. Things were moving, and the data had been leaked. Nor was this necessarily the only such "key" out there.

Tessa set her hand out on the table, regarding the device only a few inches away from it.

Her mouth firmed. If there WAS a major flaw, then she owed it to someone else to know what had occurred.

Fortunately, Kaname's class was about to get a transfer student who knew a few things about it.

* * *

KOS-MOS seemed to blur and then there were three of her, surrounded by the red pulsing of U-DO.

"What have you done?" asked the blue-eyed KOS-MOS.

The purely mechanical creature scanned the other two with its red-tinted optical sensors, confirming that one was biological and the other was both and neither.

The third simply awaited the initiation of combat.

U-DO pulsed, studying this odd composite being.

Which became problematic a moment later when two of them vanished.

* * *

"Okay, why does one of 'em look like the terminator and the other look like she's six?" asked Ranma, understandably. "Never mind why there was THREE of them!"

"U-DO is curious about mortal existence," said chaos. "Here, in this realm, your friend being as undeveloped and inexperienced as she is made this possible. One is her biological data, as the daughter of Shion Uzuki. One is the machine, the mechanical entity formed of the technology of Refuge and Zeno. The third is the destroyer, the pure weapon that lives only to kill. These three comprised the being known as KOS-MOS."

"So what do we gotta do to fix this?" asked Ranma.

"Typically, in human legends and tales, things like this require a quest," said chaos.

"Oh crap," said Ranma, summing it up. "Sounds complicated."

* * *

Ever since a particular war nut had come into her life, Kaname Chidori had been through some really rough things. A lovely young schoolgirl like her was not supposed to learn how to duck explosions, avoid tripwires, and handle the releasing of gases, but she'd been forced to once Sosuke Sagara had come into her life. Sure, part of it wasn't his fault, considering just how some people had stumbled into his attempts to be 'subtle'. But he was terribly bad at keeping things nice and quiet, to the point of being rather obnoxious about it. She found that she had to keep him in check, and not only because he seemed especially fond of 'protecting' her, as if she needed it. As it was, she was perfectly capable of handling big city creeps, and didn't need some military fan intercepting anyone who might even be a minor bother for her.

Okay, so she would have smacked down a few of them on her own, if he didn't take them down himself, but there was a major difference between kicking someone in the head, and telling them that they'd be dead if they didn't retreat immediately.

And the damnedest thing was that it seemed that the two of them were getting connected together. Not only were the two of them spending all too much time together, but other people tended to associate the two of them in their minds. It was bad enough to know that they were known to be around together a lot, but when Shinji had come to her when she was alone, looking to share his copy of _Jane's Military Ships_, it was a bit much for her to accept.

But the thing was that she actually could not find the ability to distance herself from him. In fact, she was even to stop by his apartment to drop off some papers for a school project... voluntarily. She'd offered to do it before she realized what she was doing, but she was actually willing to work with a guy who would shove the face of a guy who couldn't take her saying 'no' into a toilet.

"What the heck is wrong with me?" she groaned to herself as she walked on her way to his building. She knew that if she were being sane, she would have simply turned around and gone back home, but she was apparently unable to do a simple thing like that. Fortunately, since she lived so close to him, she could get back to her haven of sanity soon enough. Plus, it didn't seem to be likely that anything new to disturb her would pop up.

"Excuse me?" asked a soft voice. "Could you help me?"

Turning, Kaname saw a girl of about her age with silver hair in a ponytail, and a slim figure, who she found an immediate irritation with for some strange reason. Brushing it off, she raised her brow at the girl. "Yes? What can I do for you?"

"Well.... I'm looking for a particular apartment, but I can't find the building right now...."

"Oh? Come to visit someone?"

"I just got into the area, and decided to come see him as soon as I could. But...."

"That sounds simple enough. Maybe I _can_ help."

The other girl clapped her hands together as she gave a pleased smile. "Would you? I'd be ever so grateful. He and I have been pretty close."

"Is that so? Seems like you'd be wanting to get to him really soon."

"Absolutely! Maybe you've met him too. His name's Sosuke Sagara, and we've known each other for a while now."

"You don't say...." Kaname ground out, finding herself rather annoyed with this person for reasons that she simply could not fathom.

* * *

"Not that I see anything wrong with it, but why did you bow your head just now?" chaos asked Ranma.

The pigtailed boy rubbed the back of his head and shrugged. "I'm not quite sure myself, but I feel like someone else just got hit by some real pain in the ass problem that I managed to miss."

"Ah, and you were paying your respects to that poor soul."

"Somethin' like that."

* * *

The girl at the front of the class was quite the beauty, and the students of both genders could agree on that. She had a slim and delicate form, with smooth shapely limbs, a well shaped bust, and soft features that could not possibly be harsh, even in anger. Instead, she seemed like the sort of gentle flower that brightened any place that she would be in, and would simply be welcome in any group. With her platinum hair, shining eyes, and how her uniform showed off her body so nicely, it was clear that she would be a darling addition to the class.

It also meant that Sosuke Sagara was in hell.

"My name Teletha Tesstarossa, but you all can call me 'Tessa'," she told the class, and smiled brightly.

"Wow! What a babe!" cried out a good number of boys.

Many girls put their hands to their cheeks and squealed. "Oh, how cute!"

Sosuke just twitched, as he had not been told about this development until the last moment. He had nothing against the captain, as he had found her to be a welcome partner in their working environment, but this was not the same as being at the base. Instead, he was under strict rules regarding her, and he knew that what he had been told would really come to pass if he didn't act _exactly_ as he had been ordered to.

What made it even worse was that there was one girl in the class who did _not_ seem pleased by this development, but he'd already known that she was not happy about something. Of course, he couldn't exactly miss that, what with what had happened earlier in the day. And she was not gushing over the arrival of the captain herself.

If anything, Kaname was actually holding herself more rigid than before when the new transfer student had been announced.

Then there was the scowl that she sent his way when she caught him looking in her direction.

A sigh passed his lips as he tried to stabilize himself under the weight of all the pressure being put on him. First he'd had to handle having a superior officer pop in on him. Then he'd had Commander Mardukas inform him that if anything had happened to her, he'd strap Sosuke to a pile of depth charges and weights, and drop him into a deep ocean trench, with a ten second delay. On top of it, he'd wound up with Kaname verbally biting his head off and smacking him around with that harisen of hers.

"Oh, Mister Sagara," Miss Kagurazaka murmured softly.

He blinked and looked up at her. "Yes, ma'am?"

"We don't want to have some sort of troublesome incidents around her. So... don't you go and do something stupid, like show off your inappropriate and violent reactions to difficulties, do you understand me, Mister Sagara?!"

"Uh...."

"I said, DID YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!"

"Ma'am, yes, ma'am!"

"Good."

Had he not been trained so well, he would have whimpered. As it was, he was unable to not stiffen up and twitch, as he knew that he'd just gotten yet _another_ stress put upon him that he couldn't ignore. Just why it had happened to him, he wasn't too sure, but he was pretty sure that it would be the death of him. Unfortunately, he couldn't avoid it, and he knew that it wouldn't let him if he tried.

* * *

The workings of the medscanner were not entirely understood by the overwhelming majority of those who used them. They were left off most of the time, lest some little fluctuation in electricity or other equipment fry their little innards. Some of the parts were imported directly from the BOLO's main repair bay.

When one took the little "salt shaker" sensor each unit came with and passed it over a human (or humanoid) body, what was displayed was a wealth of information one could tab through. On the most basic screen, it showed such things as heartrate and blood pressure, temperature, and a profile of the body being scanned. Further details could be called up, the computer inside contrasting an average healthy human's details and flagging discrepencies with different colors. There was a lot the little things could do, though they certainly didn't replace the need for lab tests when such were available.

If not, the little gadgets were darn near indispensible to those who had access to them. A medic in the battlefield could tell in a few seconds where a bullet was lodged, cancerous cells could be found before they turned metastatic, fluid buildup would get an appropriate color flag whether it was from a case of the sniffles or internal bleeding.

"So it even flags 'Junior'?" asked Colonel O'Neill.

"Yes, though to interpret the displays you need to be fairly well trained in medicine," said Doctor Frasier. "We're training people as quickly as we can on the basics, but some of the things we're discovering..."

"Good stuff, huh?" asked the Colonel, shifting his pack around.

"If we need to culture or do detailed lab work, we still need to do it," said Doctor Frasier. "We've been distributing these on a limited basis but due to the fact that they're alientech and fragile..."

"So that's why you're going with us?" asked Samantha Carter. "Not that you're not welcome."

"That's it," agreed the Doctor. "Different environments. This particular one came across with low level radioactivity and we wanted to test it out."

"Radioactive?" asked Jack.

"The MALP reported some low level problems, we'll be fine if we keep the exposure limited," said Sam.

"Okay, we're off to, where was this again?" asked Daniel, adjusting his shoulder straps.

"P3X-989," said Jack. "How short an exposure? See, radioactive isn't a good thing where I come from."

"Actually, you're the safest of any of us, Colonel," said Doctor Frasier. "Too much energy and you'll just..."

Jack frowned as the doctor made a gesture like holding soccer balls against her chest.

"Never mind," said Janet. "Let's go."

"I just hope Hotaru's going to be okay," said Daniel. "She's still pretty shaken up."

"You ready?" asked Jack to their sixth, if temporary, member.

"Yes, sir," said the woman in a strong accent.

"Have we met?" asked Doctor Frasier.

"No, ma'am," said the soldier in nondescript camou. "Erin Smiley. The British government in cooperation with your own government wanted me to get some hands-on experience with you here. I have signed the appropriate forms and disclaimers."

"She tested high on the presence of the Silver Millenium gene," said Jack. "However, Miss Smiley here is apparently not with their military."

"Not exactly," admitted the soldier.

"Oh?" asked Janet.

Erin merely shifted her backpack slightly and waited.

"Ah," said Janet, figuring it was probably something horribly mundane.

* * *

Kaname just KNEW something was going on, and with her friend Kyoko Tokiwa backing her up, was going to get to the bottom of it.

"Shhhh," whispered Kyoko. "This gadget I got from Shinji will let us hear them, but we can't let them know we're here."

"I already know that," whispered back Kaname. "We just point it and turn it on."

Kyoko listened to one earpiece, Kaname to the other, and they tried to make sense out of the conversation.

* * *

"...it's too dangerous for you here, Captain," said Sosuke.

"I'll only be here briefly," said Tessa. "Meanwhile, it isn't as if we're defenseless here."

"Then why are you here?" asked Sosuke.

"Well, I could say I thought it would be fun," said Tessa.

"Japanese high school might be many things, but somehow 'fun' doesn't quite capture it," said Sosuke.

"The real reason is that apparently there are side effects that... did you hear something?" said Tessa.

"No, I didn't," said Sosuke, looking around.

"I thought I heard, or maybe felt..." said Tessa, sounding uncertain.

"What kind of side effects?" asked Sosuke. "From the orb?"

"Yes," said Tessa. "I wanted to see Miss Chidori in person. She deserves to know, but knowing might increase the danger she's in."

Sosuke shook his head. "I disagree. Miss Chidori has no training in any sort of combat operation, and it is questionable whether she will actually believe any of the recent chain of events."

"You never know, she might actually be a Sailor V fan," said Tessa, her tone indicating some wry humor.

"Our assault on the enemy base convinced me to take those girls seriously, though meeting them in person..." said Sosuke. "I have to admit that there are some parallels... is something wrong?"

"I'm still getting a weird echo effect," said Tessa. "It might be just a side-effect from contact with the Hokkaido Artifact."

"I see," said Sosuke. "You may be picking up on eavesdroppers. I'll scout the area."

* * *

Kaname took two steps a time, and she was still being left behind by Kyoko.

In her mind though, the conversation she'd overheard raised at least as many questions as answers. Yes, Teletha and Sosuke DID know each other. Teletha had... feelings for Sosuke. How did she know that?! Why did Tessa have the nickname of "Captain"? They both knew 'Sailor V'? And Kaname had some connection to Sailor V?! What? She'd only bought some of the candies the other day, she'd never MET Sailor V. Or had she? Did this mean SHE was going to be a Sailor Senshi?!

She hoped not. There were times she'd put on a little weight and that outfit would show it whenever she did. Not to mention some of the bad bad bad dojinshi she'd seen.

Now though - she had to hide. Who knew what would happen if they knew she knew something was going on?

* * *

"So they've got a hidden base under the base with underground hangers and giant robots?" asked Haruka.

"And little alien girls named after Norse deities building the giant robot, the other ship was a two seat starfighter," corrected Michiru.

"I see," said Haruka. "Then there is only one thing to do."

"What's that?" asked Michiru.

"Come back tomorrow and win the race," Haruka said simply.

"You don't want to try anything else?" Michiru asked, frowning slightly. "We do have options."

"Yes, but this would be our best one."

"Why would that be the case?"

The blonde crossed her arms over her chest. "Simple. They're likely watching us to see what we do. If they see us break in, they'll know that we're on to them. But if we play it cool...."

"Then they won't suspect a thing."

"Exactly. And winning the race will give us so much more. Like more of a chance that they'll have finished whatever it is that still needs to be done on the machines that you saw."

"What? Like what?" the violinist asked.

"Think about it. Would you ride in a car with its engine half done?"

"So we wait until they're finished and then... what? Take the vehicles?"

"Actually... no. For all we know, they might have something cooler, er, better, or they might want to give what they already have to us."

"And you'd believe that so simply?"

"Of course not." Haruka waved off the idea with a dismissive wave of her hand. "The reality is that they don't have to mean to hurt us. All they have to do is to not know about something important."

"Like... forgetting to put in a needed instrument."

"Pretty much. And with aliens involved...."

"We need to be on our toes.

"But there is one other thing though.

"And that is?" Michiru leaned in close.

"You didn't fly with me, but you have to know how good it felt to fly that little plane. 'I feel a need, a need for speed'!"

'She really _has_ watched that movie enough to be a 'true fan' of it, hasn't she...." the green haired girl thought to herself, shaking her head in gentle bemusement. "At least, it doesn't seem like anyone's being forgotten...."

* * *

Mamoru sat in his apartment and wondered just why nothing had come up around him as of late, but then, such a situation hadn't been all that bad, at least by his reckoning. He hadn't had any real troubles that hadn't been ones that he'd expected to have recently, save for a few odd... bumps. Sure, it was rather difficult to have to do work, school, _and_ training, like he did now, but at least he had gotten some stability out of it. Life before that had been something of a vague situation, where he didn't know how he would get the answers that he needed.

Now he had a job that could take him places, answers to the sort of questions that had really troubled him, and even a girlfriend who seemed to be just the right girl for him. They might have had some sort of bond in a previous life, but he did know that they were getting to be truly close. Not that he would feel quite safe in meeting her father quite yet, military training, or not.

But, at least he didn't feel like he was being forgotten, or something like that.

Things were pretty good.

* * *

"Sniper positions?"

"Ready."

"Blackout?"

"Remote-control charges will take out the phone lines, nearby cell repeaters, and the electronic controls for the school's gates simultaneously. We've also got the scrambler ready, though I don't think we'd need it."

Gauron's eyes were cold. "Don't think. You're clearly not experienced at it."

The mercenary rolled his eyes. Unfortunately in his line of work, working with psychotic killers was a job requirement. Didn't mean he had to like it.

Gauron considered calling in the two girls. He kept up the fiction he didn't know them and considered them dangerous liabilities. He had a number of reasons for this, and only a few people actually knew of the connection. By using them he could cause the kill ratio on this job to escalate and confuse the authorities still further. But no - better he keep some cards in reserve. "What about transport?"

"We got three of those freight containers from the Triads," said the mercenary. "Refitted for being sound-proofed and locked up. We have the trucks to haul them to the train yard, then down to a dockyard in Kansai where they'll be loaded to a ship. Bribes and permits have been paid off along the route. Everything will be in place tomorrow morning."

"Hmmm," said Gauron with a nod. "We'll wait until second period tomorrow then."

* * *

"big brother!" said little KOS-MOS, hugging Ranma's leg.

Ranma thought this definitely constituted as weird.

Apparently mech-KOS-MOS considered it weird too. "Familial relationship not recognized. Statement in error."

"Bleaaaaa," said little KOS-MOS, sticking her tongue out at mech-KOS-MOS.

"That does not compute," said mech-KOS-MOS.

"What the heck is going on?" asked Ranma.

chaos shrugged and twirled the bo staff he'd pulled out for this practice session. "Offhand, I'd say this lesson has been postponed."

* * *

Setsuna Meiou stood on the bridge of the ship and watched the holographic display.

"They have lost power," said Thor. "Amazing it held together this long."

"Well, we'll just have to help them along," said Urd.

"No, actually, I think they can fix it," began Thor.

Images of vines and leaves began appearing around Urd. "Yggdrasil access requested."

"You're going to get in trouble again," pointed out Thor.

"Grant wings to their flight,  
Grant balm to their plight,  
Renew engines' might,  
With speed beyond light!  
Sleipnir!"

"Now you've done it," said Thor, shaking his head. His glance to Setsuna, big black eyes and different species to the side, somehow conveyed that he had less flashy and more efficient ways of doing things than whatever had just blurred space around the two ships.

"Not quite," said Urd, holding up a hand as the blurring stopped and the ships lurched back into realspace. "I've got a plan."

* * *

"Bringing systems back online," said Sergeant Greenwood.

"Scanners operational," said Captain Weber. "Checking to see what caused that..."

"What's that?" asked Sergeant Greenwood.

Salvatore cleared her throat. "Jupiter? We somehow exited in our own solar system? Wait a minute, I'm reading a large ship off starboard. Massive energy readings!"

"We're being hailed," said Captain Weber.

"I can see that," said Sergeant Greenwood as the holographic image formed.

"Hello," said the image, bowing. "I am Sailor Pluto. I was able to convince my friends here to allow me to give your ship a tow..."

* * *

"You really think anyone will buy this?" asked Thor, watching Pluto give the little speech Urd had come up with.

"Why not?" asked Urd. "If nothing else, it establishes her in a friendly manner to the Earth folk. Avoids the whole 'is she a good senshi or a bad senshi' deal for the most part."

"I still think you're going to be in serious _sizplok_ over this," said Thor.

* * *

Kaname told herself she was safe. Kaname told herself there was no way he could know. There was no way that either of them knew. She sat at her desk after lunch and tried to look calm and perfectly fine.

She was stressing out though. Both 'Tessa' and Sosuke were associating with Sailor Venus?! Neither really seemed the type.

She just wished she knew more about what was going on, what had Sosuke meant when talking about some assault?

Kaname's eyes widened as she seemed to rush forward towards Sosuke.

* * *

"Two minutes until drop," came the voice from the overhead speaker.

_Are they really going to be okay, this is all so... odd._ I shake my head at the thought. _No. The mission is important, and I've certainly seen what these girls are capable of. It's just - wouldn't armor be more practical?_

I look over my comrades for this mission briefly. Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Mars. _She still looks angry. Well, can I really blame her? It's not like I know how to handle life in that sort of environment._

My hands know the weapons I have so well that I don't have to look at them to check their placement and know they're ready. The new ones though - those required more careful inspection.

"First salvo of missiles have hit. Enemy base is launching fighters. Fifty seconds to drop," said the overhead speaker. "Good hunting!"

I glance over at the others. Everyone is pairing up with a Senshi to make sure they're clear. _It's not a true drop of course. The helicopter will be barely a meter off the ice._

A sudden lurch, a drop, and the door is yanked open by a technical sergeant. I'm first through the door, using my newly acquired M16A2, which seems a trifle lighter now that I'm charging into combat. _Adrenaline, likely._

I flinch as something serpentine and long twists towards me, but my aim doesn't falter as I begin spraying it.

* * *

"AGGGGGG?!" asked Kaname, kicking back from the monster. Slowly she looked around, back in the classroom where a lot of people were looking at her. "Oh. Uhm. Spider. Startled me."

Sosuke came over to help look for the spider with a number of others.

Kaname noticed that Teletha didn't look convinced at all.

* * *

Admittedly, they were thugs. Foreign nationals working in Japan with others who were native Japanese but for whom the entire idea of civilized behavior just didn't work.

There was a flesh market in some parts of the world. Japanese high school girls would command the best price, while the boys could be sold as well - just not as lucrative. The teacher was considered, and added to the 'saleable' selection.

Had they gone after a single individual, none of these others would be necessary - except that the bosses didn't want anyone know that they were after that single individual. If they did, then the question of WHY that particular girl would be targetted would be obviously on everyone's mind.

However, they were thugs. It never occurred to any of them that they too were there for purposes of redirection. They were the smokescreen to conceal the real danger.

If Gauron had been given free reign, he knew he could have managed it. The school would have had a tragic accident, killing everyone or perhaps an accident on the way to school would have claimed the life of a young girl. That the one in question would have been kidnapped and another body produced to replace her was something only he and his superiors needed to know.

Gauron merely checked. When he went off with Kaname Chidori and a few specialists he worked with, there would be an accident aboard the ship. Thugs were easy to replace, after all.

* * *

Colonel O'Neill stepped off of the raised platform, raising his voice and doing a fair imitation of an airline pilot. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Colonel speaking, welcome to P3X-niner-eight-niner... where it is a balmy room temperature. Fan out."

Janet kept an eye on Smiley, though the girl seemed to know what she was doing.

"So how is George?" asked Colonel O'Neill to the girl.

"My father relays his well wishes for you, Colonel," said the girl.

"That's good," said Colonel O'Neill, looking up at some odd quartered ball hanging from the ceiling. "Whoa. Well, the lights are on, but nobody's home."

Doctor Jackson looked over some odd collection of metal pipes. "The technology seems more advanced than most of the human planets we've seen. Maybe more advanced than Earth, less than the nanotechnologists or Asgard."

"Much more advanced than Earth," opined Carter, investigating some odd gadget.

"Well, it feels older somehow," said Daniel Jackson.

"Well," put in the Colonel. "I know how it feels. This place has seen better days."

"At least it doesn't appear to be of Goa'uld origin," said Doctor Jackson.

"There's too much background radiation for me to use the medscanner," said Janet. "I was hoping to look for lifesigns but it's like there's too much noise."

"P3X-989," said Carter. "Didn't one of my duplicates say something about that?"

"I don't know, things have been getting confusing lately," confessed Doctor Jackson.

"A computer," called out Samantha Carter, spotting the familiar-looking device.

A loud squeaking noise echoed through the building.

"That sounds ominous," said Colonel O'Neill. "Fall back."

_FWASH!_

* * *

Teletha considered what she knew of the new gifts. She considered what she'd learned of events recently. She reached out with her newly awakened talents. _Don't react._

Kaname jumped in her chair, staring wildly about.

_I said don't react,_ sent Teletha, using a tone of bemusement.

_What? How?_

_Telepathy. A two-edged sword but one that was awakened in both of us. You probed Mister Sagara, didn't you?_

_What the hell was all that?!_ asked Kaname.

_We'll talk later. We'll meet in Mister Sagara's apartment after school._

With that, Teletha closed the connection. It was surprisingly easy to connect to Miss Chidori's mind, much easier than connecting to someone without their own Whisper like Mister Sagara.

Well, it looked as if her mission objective of contacting Miss Chidori and letting her know what was going on would be sooner than she'd thought. As well as confirming what she'd determined was happening regarding that artifact.


	23. Chapter 23:Soldiers and Schools

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Chapter 23: Soldiers and Schools

* * *

When they had been given the mission, B'igs had thought that it was a simple enough task. All that he and his fellow Jaffa would have to do would be to watch the world of the Tau'ri and report back to their Lord as to what was going on there. It didn't seem to be too much of a challenge, as there were only two ways that it could go. On the one hand, he could simply collect all the information that he could, and then report to his master at the scheduled time. Or he could wind up dealing with some sort of attack, which would give him all the information that his Lord would need.

As of that moment though, the former was proving to be the regular activity, rather than the latter.

Sitting back in his seat, he held his drink in his hand and gazed out at the scene just outside the viewports of the tel'tak. "Have we gotten any sort of change in the situation?"

"Not at all," his compatriot, Wed'j replied. "Near as I can tell, there isn't a single sign that they've changed anything since we've gotten here."

"Then we'll just have to tell Lord Heru'ur that they seem to be totally unready for real warriors to show up."

"Still...."

"What?"

"Since they seem to be so... simple, how did they do all that they are supposed to have done?"

"Luck, I suppose," B'igs suggested as he took a sip of his drink.

"But that sort of thing runs out, right?"

"Eventually. It's just a question of if it is going to be 'sooner' or 'later'."

"And we'll be there when it happens...." Wed'j began... right as something familiar came out of hyperspace.

As it happened as he started to really drink, it was understandable as to why B'igs suddenly began spitting out the liquid in a powerful spray.

The sight of an Asgard ship moving into orbit around a nearby planet would cause that sort of reaction in any Jaffa, considering what that particular race could do.

Wed'j simply stared at the giant silvery vessel and took in all the information that he could. "What do we do now?"

"Get ourselves out of here, that's what!" his fellow Jaffa snapped. "We can't stay here!"

"But we can't leave our post...."

"We can't do Lord Heru'ur any good if we're blasted away by them. We need to be somewhere that we can let him know about this... this... event."

"You do know what will happen to us when we give him the bad news...."

"And what would happen if we run off and hide, with him knowing that we're alive somewhere in the galaxy?"

"Well.... Good point."

"I know. Even if I wish that it wasn't true," B'igs sighed as he hit the commands to get the ship moving out of the immediate vicinity of the Tau'ri homeworld.

* * *

"Do they really think that we didn't notice them?" Urd murmured thoughtfully, glancing over at the image of a tel'tak darting off out of the corner of her eye.

Thor's head tilted slightly to the side. "They most likely do not wish to confront a ship such as this one."

"Yeah, but they could run away with a bit more dignity than sending out enough signals that they might as well hold up a flag."

"Be that as it may," Sailor Pluto commented with a shrug. "I do know something."

"And that is...."

"They likely don't know just what they've already been 'spotted by'."

"Too true. Too true," the Norn admitted, and turned her attention back to the freighter that was currently sneaking in towards the Earth.

* * *

Kaname tried to keep her breathing under control as she rode up in the elevator. She knew that what she was doing might have been regarded as absurd, but she felt that she had to at least go through with this part of it. As it was, the only real concern that she had was that she was going to have to deal with two people who she had been rather weirded out by.

But then, she'd been promised some explanations as to what was going on, and she didn't want to miss out on that.

So, she stepped from the elevator down towards the apartment that she'd been directed to, and knew that this was going to be a big step. She raised her finger towards the buzzer and swallowed hard as she began to reconsider the situation. What she was about to face was likely going to be something that she wouldn't enjoy, and there was a possibility that she was stepping right into the hands of the people who would want to do her the most harm. As it was, she'd already been rather bothered by this pair, and if she left right then and there, she could probably avoid the whole mess.

Instead, she firmed up her stance, growled under her breath, and jabbed her finger onto the button that would sound the bell for those inside to know that she was there.

"Who is it?" asked a familiar male voice from behind the door.

"It's me, you idiot!" Kaname snapped, her eyes glaring hard enough to burn holes through the door. "You don't ask someone to come over, and then question them when they come!"

"You could be a decoy sent to keep us occupied, and to lower our defenses when the real Kaname Chidori is...."

"Stop it with your silly daydreams, and just open the damned door already!"

"Really, Mister Sagara, you should realize that so much fuss isn't helpful at all," Tessa admonished as she opened the door. "Sorry about that, but we have to be careful."

"About what? It isn't like one of those big cyborg guys that Arnold played would show up about now."

"That's true, but there are dangers that you don't know about."

"So you say, but I think that you're... living in a place that looks like it's a military outpost or something."

"That's because it _is_ a military post," Sosuke corrected the civilian girl.

"Huh?"

Tessa looked apologetically at the blue haired girl. "I know that this will be hard to take, but this is much more serious than you think."

"I can tell that already."

"You can?"

"Sure," Kaname admitted as she bent over to look at the equipment resting on the tables. "This stuff really looks like it's the real thing. It isn't that 'hobby' stuff that Shinji talks about sometimes. And you even have.... Hold on. Is that a _camera_ pointed at _my_ apartment window?!"

"It is," the sergent confirmed.

"And why the hell would you need that?!"

"To take pictures of you."

"Oh really.... JUST WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?! DOES IT TURN YOU ON TO TAKE PHOTOS OF DEFENSELESS AND UNKNOWING GIRLS?! ARE YOU JUST SOME SORT OF PERVERT VOYEUR WHO GETS OFF ON WATCHING INNOCENT MAIDENS IN THE PRIVACY OF THEIR OWN HOMES?! WELL, YOU'D BETTER BELIEVE THAT THIS GIRL ISN'T ABOUT TO LET YOU KEEP UP WITH YOUR MESS! AND YOU'D BETTER NOT HAVE DONE ANYTHING PERVERTED WITH ANY PICTURES OF ME, OR I'LL MAKE YOU REGRET IT SO MUCH THAT YOU'LL WISH THAT YOU HAD AN ENTIRE TANK REGIMENT READY TO PROTECT YOU, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!"

"Yes, of course! Yes!" Sosuke choked out as the girl he was assigned to protect shook him by his collar so hard that his head seemed to be ready to wobble off.

"That's good, since I'm not about to let you have the chance to try something, you lecherous military maniac!"

"It isn't like that," Tessa protested.

"No? Then why else would he have a camera pointed at the window of a lovely young woman living alone?"

"Your protection. You see, we have to be able to keep a watch on you so that we can spot any changes around you."

"You're looking around me?"

The boy with the scar rubbed his throat before speaking. "Affirmative. Unexpected and unexplained changes around your living quarters could mean that anything from a surveillance bug to an incapacitation device could be placed into proximity with you, without you ever being concerned until it was too late. In this way, we were able to spot any changes in the environment of your home, and be ready to make a recording of any intruders on a moment's notice."

"Oh, come on. You make it sound like there are guys just waiting out there to attack me, beat me up, and inject me with drugs."

"That is incorrect."

"See? Even you have to admit...."

"The ones currently threating you will likely kidnap you, pump you full of drugs, and then experiment on you."

"Which is a form of torture," Tessa added on, looking rather grim.

For a moment, Kaname was ready to carry on with her wave of confidence, but as she looked at the two 'transfer students', she suddenly felt rather uncertain about the whole situation. She let her shoulders slump, and began to wonder just what sort of people they were if they could calmly talk about such things. And if they were really there to prevent that sort of danger from happening, then she truly was in some serious trouble.

Even as she hoped that was not the case, she had a serious inkling that this was no simple 'game.'

* * *

Kaname sat down at her own table in her own apartment and wondered why Teletha had suggested this. Oh sure, she'd said that they could engage in "girl talk" without Sosuke around. Yet she was pretty sure that wasn't all there was to it.

"So what do you think of Mister Sagara?" asked Teletha, putting the little cup of creamer and coffee to the side.

"That gun freak?" asked Kaname.

"Yes, well, he isn't who I would have chosen for this assignment," admitted Teletha. "He doesn't have any experience in trying to fit in."

"It shows," said Kaname with a snort. "What IS with him?"

"He's an orphan, raised in military camps all his life," said Teletha. "He's been in guerrilla warfare situations since he was five years old. He's a specialist and extremely skilled in surviving in battlefield conditions and operating and repairing machinery and weapons."

"Yeah, he's got enough gung ho for three men," said Kaname, then frowned as she put together what the other girl had said with what she herself had observed. "So you're saying..."

"He doesn't know how to fit in with normal civilian life," said Teletha. "You also know more than that. You've looked into him."

"Well yeah, but all I saw was that assault on Beryl's base," said Kaname. "Waitaminute, who's base?"

"Beryl was one of the leaders behind Sailor V's opponents," explained Teletha. "There was a coordinated assault on that base by several distinct groups - including Sailor V and her fellow 'Senshi'."

"I'm not going to have to wear that outfit am I?" asked Kaname, thinking she'd have to work on her waist a little before that happened. Not that she wasn't in good shape, but that outfit clung so much!

"I don't think that will happen, but I wouldn't rule it out," said Teletha, with oddly similar reservations. Not about her waist, but her thinness and lack of a figure would show up.

"You've looked into him too, haven't you?" asked Kaname. The blush on the fair features of the other girl was answer enough.

"You'll find that talent cutting in often when you aren't intending to do anything," said Teletha.

"What exactly is THAT?" asked Kaname.

"Telepathy, though we appear to have a fair degree of something called Telemechanics as well," said Teletha. "Most of those exposed to the device have only minor flashes of intuition. You, I, my older brother, a few others, have all reacted much more strongly to such things. We've gained talents as Whispered."

"What's a 'Whispered'? And telepathy? Like Mister Spock?" asked Kaname.

"You've experienced it yourself," pointed out Teletha.

"Yeah, but I -"

(I look in concern at the apartment across the way, and briefly struggle with the temptation to turn the audio surveillance on. No, the order was to keep those off while waiting for the Captain's signal.

Orders were important. Orders were a constant. Orders have kept me going all the times in my life that I've been alone.)

"Are you back yet?" asked Teletha.

"Ah, uhm, yeah," said Kaname, blinking. "That was..."

"Mister Sagara has had a... difficult childhood," said Teletha. "He's surprisingly easy for both of us to contact, but I suspect others with the same gift would not find it so simple."

"So, I can read minds? That doesn't seem to work well, I can't tell much about Kyoko," said Kaname. "I tried after that bit with Sosuke earlier."

"Something changed in Mister Sagara when he was exposed, but I'm not sure what," said Teletha. "Now you have to watch doing that. There's a danger in contacting another mind too often."

"Oh, what's that?" asked Kaname. Superpowers weren't supposed to have drawbacks, were they?

"Here we have coffee, and here we have creamer," said Teletha. "When you add them together, a little bit and you still have what tastes like coffee. Add too much and it's truly neither coffee nor creamer. Oversimplified but still..."

"Ugh, I'm not going to..." Kaname had a sudden image of herself wearing camouflage and carrying a rifle.

"Turn into Mister Sagara? No," said Teletha. "Though you might find some of his mannerisms rubbing off on you, and some of yours showing up in him. You'd have to spend a lot more time linked to him and go deeper, I think."

"If it would give him some common sense, that would be a major improvement," pointed out Kaname.

* * *

Wed'j let out a deep breath. "We are behind Earth's moon. The Asgard can't find us here."

B'igs nodded. "We'll have to come out eventually, but we can show these readings to our superiors. We didn't leave the system and technically didn't leave our post."

"Of course, we can't see them either," pointed out Wed'j.

"We'll just peek around in seven local hours," said B'igs. "See if they're still there."

Meanwhile, a freighter was entering Earth's atmosphere.

* * *

"So who ARE you, and Sosuke, for that matter?" asked Kaname. "I get that he's been in one military camp after another, that he's never known anyone but military personnel until he was assigned here, that he's always viewed things in terms of pure survival because if he hadn't he'd have died years ago, and that he's got some feelings for... WHAT?!"

"Oh?" asked Tessa, suddenly flashing with interest/jealousy/uncertainty/despair.

"Whoa," said Kaname, blinking and trying to interpret all that.

"Sorry, I slipped," said Tessa. "Anyway, we both work for MITHRIL, which is an independent group that is currently working with both the JSDF and the Sailor Senshi as well as a secret organization within the American Military..."

* * *

Ranma discovered that little sisters could be a pain. Not entirely, but they still were a drain in the time department.

Little KOS-MOS was kind of bratty too.

He just hoped he could learn these new manuevers, then get out of here.

* * *

"Yes, sir, we made contact with 'Sailor Pluto', she convinced Urd and Thor to give us a lift. No sir, we didn't see Lieutenant Mayo. They may not have wanted Earth personnel on their control deck though, much as we would tend to keep civilians out of sensitive areas on a military craft," said Captain Weber into the scrambled transciever.

The others on the bridge listened, but their attention was mainly on their devices.

"We'll begin shifting cargo to the secured areas prepared for them," continued Captain Weber. "The only exception to the night operations rule will be with Princess Diamond who has secured a site for a day delivery. Yessir. Yessir. Nossir, it shouldn't be a problem. Yessir, she appears to be a 'good Senshi' and I'd think Miss Urd and the Asgard would likely be able to tell if she was not. Yessir. We're making the British delivery now."

* * *

"What the hell?" asked Colonel O'Neill, on finding himself lying on a coffin-shaped table and wearing different clothes.

"Colonel?" asked Carter.

Janet checked. "The medscanner is gone."

"So what's happening?" asked Carter. "How did we end up in these outfits?"

"I don't know," said Jack. "At least I didn't turn into a girl."

"That's right, we were hit by an energy field and it didn't trigger your transformation," said Janet.

"Maybe I'm finally cured," said Jack, sounding slightly hopeful.

"My transmitter's also gone," said Carter.

"Looks like Daniel and Teal'c are still unconscious, so is Ms. Smiley," said Janet, deciding to check them for injuries.

* * *

"Well, this is going to be one to remember," Janet drawled as she tried to take O'Neill's pulse. "Because I know that it's got to be a signal that something is up."

"Okay, much as I like an attractive woman holding my wrist, I do have to ask that you explain that one to me," Jack idly commented, raising both brows in a silent question.

"Sir? Unless someone has changed the way that the human body works, you should not be standing right now."

"What, should I be laying down?"

"Yes. Permanently," the doctor responded, the look in her eyes saying that she was only half joking.

Sam looked up from where she'd been leaning over Daniel, and frowned. "Hold on. Are you saying that he's... dead?"

"If I'm right, all three of us _should_ be in a morgue."

"And since we're not...."

"Something must have happened to us other than being knocked out."

"Okay... someone want to explain this one to me?" the colonel asked, smiling mock-hopefully.

"To tell the truth sir, we can't know right now," Carter admitted, nodding to Janet as the doctor moved over to Teal'c. "You see we can have theories, but without real facts, we can't say anything for sure."

"Okay...."

"Think of it this way. You didn't get turned into a girl, right?"

Jack looked down, patted his chest, and grinned. "Nope. Still as much a guy as I've ever been."

"That's the thing, sir. That energy that knocked us out should have been enough to transform you into a girl. But, it might have been only enough to do it for a short time. Or it might not have been the right sort of 'power' to do the job. Then again, you might have been a girl for a long time, but just been drained of the energy before you woke up."

"What's the bottom line, Carter?"

"The only thing about you staying male that we know for sure is that you woke up male. Other than that, we can't say," the blonde told him with a shrug.

"At least we seem to have our health, right? Oh yeah, the whole 'lack of a pulse' thing. Then... we have the ability to function, which is good. And we're still together. Except.... Daniel? Teal'c? You two okay?"

The former First Prime sat up suddenly and turned his head to look at the colonel. "I am well."

"Though the lack of your parasite makes that questionable," Fraiser dryly put in.

"I am missing my symbiote?"

"You are missing any sign that you ever were capable of holding one in the first place. Which, I might add, should be impossible, even with the technology that we have now."

"That is odd. I still feel it within me."

"Fortunately, I don't have to worry about having those problems," Smiley sighed as she leaned up from her own bed.

Daniel made a sound of amusement as he turned to look at her as he came awake. "Hey, we're doing better than we should be after what happened."

"Getting hit by an energy weapon?"

"Should at least sting, but...."

"And I don't even have an ache. Wonder why that is...."

"Unfortunately, unless someone comes into this room right now, we're not going to have a chance to get answers all that quickly," Carter told the British girl.

Just the doors opened, and a man with balding grey hair and an overenthusiastic smile came into the room. "Comtraya! It is good to see you all awake.... But is there some sort of problem?"

"You might say that. Come on. We're going to have a little chat," O'Neill drawled as he moved towards the newcomer.

* * *

It was really simple once he thought of it.

The question of 'who Pluto was' had been rolling about in General Hammond's mind ever since he'd first heard that one of the 'Sailor Senshi' was on the Asgard ship. He knew that it had to be someone the aliens trusted, or they wouldn't have allowed her onto their vessel. But the Senshi that he'd met had all been born on the Earth, and since this one's name followed the sort of order that he'd seen before, it stood to reason that this young woman was likely from his planet as well.

However, that also meant that there was someone out there who had been thought enough of by the Asgard that they had been allowed to see at least some of the truth behind the aliens' set up. As such, they had to be reasonably sure that the girl in question would be able to keep her head about her, and not do something that could harm them. Of course, since he hadn't heard of mass disappearances on the planet, they couldn't be just grabbing people. Rather, they seemed to know who they were looking for, which made sense, given the Asgard unwillingness to simply 'throw open the doors', so to speak. In fact, he would have been surprised to hear that they'd allowed more than one Earth born human onto their ship. As it was, they'd already taken one, and it was clear that such an event was an uncommon occurrence. In fact, it was more than likely that she was the only one there.

And as he sat behind his desk, and leaned his chair back, General Hammond could 'feel' the pieces click into place. His own experience was that the simple explanation was usually the best, and as there was already a young human woman of the right age on the ship, the Asgard didn't have to look far to find Sailor Pluto. It wouldn't have surprised him if they'd already known that she was a Sailor Senshi. He'd already been aware that there was something... different about her, so it was perfectly understandable as to why such advanced aliens would know exactly what that vague feeling was pointing to.

Now, he just had to figure out a way to let Lieutenant Mayo know that he knew that she was 'Sailor Pluto'.

* * *

Kaname stared at the girl across from her with the dull sort of look that only the unexpected could put on one's face. She _had_ been hoping that she could do without the constant guarding presence, as it did tend to be more problematic than helpful. However, she hadn't been expecting what she had gotten in response. "What do you mean that I can never be without this sort of 'protection'?"

"Just what it sounds like," Tessa answered, using the same tone of authority that she'd used to shoot down the other girl's suggestion of patrols or alarms. "We can't take the risk."

"What sort of 'risk' are we talking about here? I mean, I don't _see_ any threats around me...."

"Just because you can't see them, doesn't mean that they aren't there. You have to understand that our abilities mean that we can do things that no one else could manage in hundreds of years. If ever."

"Like what?" the blue haired girl asked, frowning slightly.

"Other than telepathy, which would let them tap into other minds if they could 'tame' you?"

It took a few moments for what Tessa had silently suggested to sink in, but when it did, Kaname's face twisted into an expression of disgust.

"But what we also can do is instinctively know how to not only improve what technology that we've got, but can build new devices that totally blow away what's come before. Computers, security equipment.... _weapons_.... You could make any of them, or other things, which would let the ones who'd taken you get powerful. Or rich. Or both."

"They'd use me as a... library?"

Tessa gave her a long and slow nod. "Sort of. Some people say that it's like we're born with this knowledge, and to get it out, some people will do anything. They might even force it, which would be really bad for you."

"How bad are we talking about exactly?"

"They'd probably try to find a way so that they can crush your mind until the only thing that you can do is give them the secrets that your powers would have access to. No matter how awful it would be for you to suffer through."

A terrible dread sat heavily in Kaname's stomach, and she tried not to feel nauseous as she considered the unspoken possibilities that awaited her if she was not adequately protected.

* * *

Sosuke Sagara considered his own experience with an Artifact.

He had no Silver Millenium gene, so far as anyone could tell. He had an Ancient gene according to one test, but didn't according to another.

On the other hand, touching the Silver Millenial Orb had done _something_ to him. Fortunately it wasn't that which scuttlebutt indicated had occurred with Colonel O'Neill of the SGC, but it had been _something_. He'd felt a twisting, and a brief dizziness. Then he'd been fine.

Except for the dreams of course.

(The scarred young hawk sat on the perch, glancing back at his apartment, then over at Kaname's place. All was quiet.

He spread his wings and rose in the still night air, not even a trace of the usual breezes on this still night.

He landed on Kaname's balcony, peeking in the glass door. Kaname was there, but oddly enough - so was the captain. They'd apparently been talking or something and fallen asleep.

Again wings were spread, cupping the air on the down-beat for lift. Flying wasn't effortless, but it seemed fairly instinctive. Here and there was motion, which seemed to draw his eye in.

There - atop that roof. A surveillance point. Invisible to most, but somehow the eyesight of a falcon picked out the faint details of the camouflage net. This was Wraith then, the Intel operative keeping an eye on Kaname.

He looked around, seeking threats, and finally settled back down on his perch.)

Sosuke stirred, wondering why he kept having dreams like that.

* * *

Tessa dreamed and giggled.

Kaname rolled her eyes. Teletha Tessarossa, clumsy girl genius. Who apparently had feelings for Sosuke.

Which Sosuke didn't reciprocate. Sosuke saw her as a commanding officer, first, foremost, and potentially as a friend. It would take some work to get him to friend status. He didn't understand THAT too much either.

She could tell. Now, especially. She reached out and touched her alarm clock. It was just one of those cutesy ones, a plastic rooster that told you to wake up as it rolled its eyes and waved its little plastic wings.

Except that now that she KNEW, she could reach out with her mind and see the little details. The motors and wiring and little computer chip and internal workings that made it function.

Turning slightly, she abandoned her inspection of the alarm clock. There was Tessa. She seemed so young in some respects. So overly-perfect in some ways, though clumsy as an albatross on a frequent basis. What was she-

* * *

(I had wanted to meet the whole group, and this was arranged. Though the art museum had seemed to be an odd choice. Still, it was understandable that everyone had had to get home. Use the prepared documentation to explain their absence to those they knew who were NOT in on the whole secret identity thing.

I turn to one of my companions in all this, and I feel an unbidden smile crease my lips. They make a cute couple, but I understand that neither of them are completely comfortable with that sort of observation. Best to go with safer conversations, and I AM curious about a few things.

"So what's it like to visit strange new worlds?" I ask. "To seek out new life, and new civilizations? To boldly go where no man has gone before?"

The pig-tailed boy shrugs. "It's not just a job, it's an adventure."

"What's that you're reading, Minako-chan?" a young girl with purple eyes spoke up.

"Flight manual for one of the new aerospace fighters," this coming from a blonde with a bow in her hair. "This is SO cool."

"Oh," said a short-haired girl, looking curious.

_It's hard to believe that these are the Sailor Senshi,_ I think to myself. _Warriors from the ancient past fighting equally ancient evils in the streets of Tokyo. I wonder if anyone else has trouble with the paradigm shift._

The black haired girl they'd just met a few minutes ago shook her head. "Guys, we're at this art exhibit to look at the art, not trade adventure stories. I've got a report to do on this at school."

"Yeah, yeah," said the pigtailed boy. He was managing to look extremely bored.

"I WILL TAKE YOUR ENERGY FOR THE DARK - err excuse me - FOR ME!" said a rapidly morphing creature that had looked human a moment ago.

"Whadda ya know, a leftover yoma," said the pigtailed boy, showing interest as he cracks his knuckles.)

* * *

Kaname jerked as if she'd been slapped, pulling back into her own head. Tessa stirred, as if something had disturbed her sleep.

Odd how it seemed to be happening NOW but was also happening THEN. Memory was odd though, so maybe that explained it.

What was she dreaming now?

("OOOh AHH! Yes, right there!")

Kaname's jaw dropped and her eyes were wide. Oh goodness gracious. She really doubted Sosuke could EVER be like that. Well, probably. Hmmm.

* * *

Sosuke rolled over in his apartment. The odd feeling of impending danger had just increased.

What could it mean?

* * *

"SG-1 has been replaced with robot duplicates?" asked General Hammond.

"Inefficient units," said Yorkie-2. "Power consumption is quite excessive, and the powersource itself is internal batteries which are fed by a transmitted power source. They only have a half-hour or so left before shutting down."

"Technical aspects aside, what can we do about it?" asked Hammond.

"Get them back to the same world before their internal batteries run dry," said Yorkie-2. "Send myself and possibly Bonaparte along as security. From the description they were probably hit by a neural disruption attack that would be ineffective against either of us."

* * *

"Ungh," managed Ranma, slowly lifting himself off of the ground. "That... was fairly intense."

"You are showing remarkable improvement," agreed chaos.

Ranma checked his jaw but apparently his Ironskin technique was working. He was pretty sure that if it hadn't been, that last attack would have turned his jaw bone to the consistency of cooked oatmeal.

"You're so cool, big brother!" said Lil' KOS-MOS.

"Ranma-unit fighting parameters upgraded," noted mecha-KOS-MOS. "Mission objectives being achieved."

"I'm not there yet," said Ranma, not satisfied. "Let's do this again."

"Not necessary," said chaos. "TELOS is approaching. If you can defeat her - then you've advanced your skills enough."

* * *

"This is highly odd. Highly," Harlen complained as he hurried along. "All that was supposed to happen was that there would be more here. Not so much fuss...."

Corporal Guon fought the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose, as that wouldn't be right coming from her right then. Not that she didn't really need to as it reminded her of the time that she'd had to work as a guide for that Cartland woman from the British government. _That_ had not been amusing, given how much fuss had been around her. But here, the guy was doing all the fussing himself, and it was a bit annoying. She couldn't avoid it though, as she was part of the team that had come back after the android SG-1 clones, and one of the members of that team, a certain robot tank, was supposed to meet this particular robot guy.

"Is this really necessary?"

"Yes, it is," she answered as calmly as she could. "You _were_ the one who _zapped_ our people and switched them with android copies that didn't know that they were androids."

"But it was a _gift_. They lose so much that comes from having a flesh body...."

"I think that's what annoyed Colonel O'Neill so much."

"Why?" the android man asked, clearly perplexed.

"Let's just say that he likes being 'flesh', okay."

"He did not have to be so... what is the word... 'grouchy'? But he is most fascinating. Very much so."

She almost stopped in mid step as she turned her head to look at him. "How's that?"

"Odd readings came from him. Couldn't understand until I realized that energy was the key. Seemed like he transforms. That is new for me, you understand. And I... well, it made me tempted to make two of him. One for each form, if I could get them."

"Oh dear."

* * *

There was a lot on Kaname's mind as she stepped out of the train station, and she was sure if it all was being seen as it should be. That wasn't to say that she couldn't understand the concepts, but it wasn't like she'd been bothered by guys looking to kidnap, and torture her every day. Sure, she knew that there were jerks around her who'd have loved nothing better than to drag her off to some secret hideaway to keep her as their own little sextoy. Most of those were quickly dealt with by hitting them in ways that really hurt, and the others were simply avoided.

But that aspect had come into nightmares that had bothered her for a little bit the previous night, and it had not been fun dreaming of jerks who were willing to use her in any way that they could.

So, yawning a little bit, she stepped out into the sunlight and wondered what this new day would bring.

"Hello, Kaname!" called Kyoko as she waved from her spot just outside where the crowds would thin out. "Over here!"

Well, it seemed that some things would stay the same. "Morning, Kyoko. How are you doing."

"Pretty good. I tried getting some extra study time last night. Don't want to be caught out on that English test, you know. But you look a little tired...."

"It's nothing. I had a bit of a bad dream last night. Probably came from some things that I heard earlier in the day."

"Like what?"

"Oh, military stuff," the blue haired girl replied, waving off the concern. "Nothing that I really should bother you with."

"You heard too much from that Sagara guy, right?"

"Actually... no. Last time that I saw him, he was being pretty quiet, for once. Still, what I want to focus on is what's right in front of me."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Why not?"

"Because we have those reviews in Math and Japanese literature, and gym class is going to be a bit heavier than usual. And remember the student council work. You'll be pretty busy today."

"Just so long as it doesn't get strangers coming to school to make it 'busier'," Kaname muttered under her breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing! Come on. We don't want to be late!"

"I'm right with you!" Kyoko answered, and trailed after her friend. But she wondered exactly what was going on with the other girl, as it seemed that something was up. She just didn't know what that was, but she hoped that it wasn't too bad.

* * *

"You know," said Colonel Jack O'Neill, "there's something fitting somehow about using a tank in hostage negotiations."

"Well, we're out now. Though I was thinking that was kind of 'less fitting'," said Daniel.

"Tastes great," countered Colonel O'Neill.

"Less fitting," said Daniel, blinking as he wondered why this sounded vaguely familiar.

"BOYS," said Sam, making that sound at least mildly insulting.

"So the background radiation is sufficient that we can't stay there, but BOLO's works on the other hand," said Janet, letting the incomplete sentence trail off.

"-are under no such constraints," finished Sam. "Yes, so Harlen's maze of equipment will be analyzed and eventually repaired, with whatever upgrades are necessary to make it fully functional. IF, that is, it is necessary."

"So what's next on the agenda?" asked Colonel O'Neill.

"Nothing much," said Daniel. "Other than Colonel Maybourne's invited us up to his 'neck of the woods' to show us something."

"'Something' covers a lot of ground," pointed out O'Neill.

"So do those 'Excalibur' fighters," joked Daniel.

"He's got those ready?" asked Jack, now focussing.

"Either that or its power armor or something..." Sam blinked. "How did he manage to leave a dust trail down here?"

Daniel looked down the hallway. "Do you want to catch him at the elevator?"

* * *

Ranma dodged as if his life depended on it. It did, so this was wholly appropriate.

T-ELOS was one-third of KOS-MOS, split off by U-DO when that entity had been curious about the android's existence. Lil' Kos-Mos was the daughter of Shion, the humanity or semblence of such. KOS-MOS-mech was a Terminator-like sexless machine that was her purely mechanical and logic-driven self. T-ELOS was the engine of destruction, the original purpose that KOS-MOS' creators had embodied. Something built to attack and destroy that which had attacked and was destroying them. A task she had never gotten the chance to pursue as the process of constructing her had taken longer than those creators had left. As protecting her creators was no longer a possibility, there was only one option left - destroy.

T-ELOS morphed her hands into knives and began slashing with mechanical precision and the sort of speed a combat android could manage.

Ranma had his kukri out and blocked and parried with the same sort of speed.

"Kewlllll," said lil' Kos-Mos, as to her human eyes she simply saw Ranma and T-ELOS flick from moment to moment as if they were animated and several intervening frames of movement were edited out.

Ranma took this fight completely seriously and gave it all his attention. He knew what he was facing after all. He'd fought KOS-MOS once before, and he'd researched for the next time he would spar the android.

Insults or commentary would take breath he needed just to keep up the pace. This T-ELOS was going for the kill. Not an idle threat - actually removing him from life. He'd have to go full out, and keep going. If he managed to defeat her before he depleted his reserves - he'd live. If T-ELOS managed to overcome him, outlast him, or had enough time to unleash something like her vulcan cannons - he'd die. Period. No 'do over' or referee stepping in.

The gatling gun-like weapons appeared when T-ELOS leapt back. Ranma changed targets, slicing deep into both weapons with a single attack, then brought his kukri up again to block T-ELOS followup.

A double block brought a flash of pain to Ranma's face, he was able to analyze and adapt but was inwardly troubled. T-ELOS had morphed her arms around his own in an attempt to stretch around his block. With the result that he had gotten slashed open on his face.

The gasp from Lil' Kos-Mos told him it was pretty bad. Other than that, he couldn't spare any attention to the injury. His weapons were of that 'indestructible' carbon-metal, and sharpened to a molecular edge. If HE were his opponent - then removing those weapons would be a priority.

* * *

"School is surrounded, trucks have pulled up on the encircling streets," said Gauron. "Mission is go." With that simple declaration he folded his cell phone shut and lifted up the remote control. He smiled coldly as he pressed it, being immediately answered with an explosion and the clang of fire alarms.

Costumed to resemble various emergency workers, his disposable thugs would herd the students onto those trucks. From there they would begin their trip into hell.

All was going according to plan.

* * *

Sosuke Sagara was the first to realize something was wrong. It started with a nervous feeling, rapidly growing. It was exactly the sort of feeling one had when one was targetted by a sniper.

He didn't leap to his feet during class, but it was obvious to everyone in the class that Sagara was getting twitchy. The teacher even sent him to the nurse, mainly because she felt the gun nut would interrupt class if she didn't.

_What is this feeling?_

Teletha glanced at Kaname, eyes meeting across the space between their desks. _We're picking up Mister Sagara's nervousness. Something has set him off._

Kaname grimaced. _EVERYTHING sets him off. That guy is hopeless._

Teletha gave her head a slight shake before apparently returning her attention to the lesson. _Mister Sagara is attuned to an entirely different environment. It MAY be that, and after today I'll be going back to my base - but keep in mind that in a combat situation his instincts and abilities are going to be more in tune with those surroundings than your own._

_We're in Japan. In high school, for crying out loud,_ replied Kaname, finding it easier and easier to communicate like this. _What could happen?_

The explosion occurring somewhere in their building seemed adequate answer.

* * *

Kaname _could_ have gone with her classmates, and _might_ have simply accepted that something like this would count as a proper response for such a situation. To tell the truth, she would have normally simply followed through, secure in the knowledge that this was modern day Japan, and _nothing_ would happen that could be all that bad, given that the awful things only happened in war torn lands. She had nothing against the people of places where there was strife and danger, and actually would like to help them, but she had thought that sort of world was far away from her own simple, and secure, life.

That was in stark contrast to how she was currently standing in a little used stairwell, looking out a window at the sight of her schoolmates being herded away from the building. Nothing _looked_ to be amiss, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was 'off'. Part of that was perfectly explained by the fact that it seemed that the 'rescue workers' had gotten there a little too quickly. Even with the kind of chaos that had been going around the school lately, they should have taken some time, and the fact that they were there immediately actually managed to be a reason for concern at the moment.

So, biting her bottom lip, she weighed her situation, and considered herself fortunate that she'd thought of using her position as class representative to buy her some time. As it was, she was pretty sure that she was going to be soon joining her friends on those trucks that the 'rescuers' were guiding students on to. She wasn't too sure that such a situation would be a good thing, but she didn't exactly have many alternatives, especially with her concern about her classmates and Tessa weighing in on her mind.

The one thing that she was certain of though was that it was really the wrong time for Sosuke to go and make himself scarce for once.

* * *

He'd never been stupid, and he always tried to plan for any contingency, but even Sosuke had not thought that something like this would _really_ happen. Such behavior had not been of the sort that he would have expected the enemy to decide would be best, as it would draw too much attention. It would have been better for them to use a simple covert insertion, where they could go after their target quickly and cleanly, without any fuss.

Not that he hadn't planned for this contingency, as he knew that an attack on the school was a possibility. He did 'hope' that whomever was behind this was merely unaware of his presence, since having them know that he was there and still attempt this was vaguely insulting, even for him. Still, he was a professional, and he never let things like petty annoyances bother him, especially as he was aware of the fact that there were already errors in the enemy's plans.

When he'd arrived at the school, he'd measured just how long it would take the authorities to arrive at the school. Of course, that had been mainly a safety precaution, so that he would be aware of how long he'd have to hold out before even that minimal assistance would arrive, or how long he'd have to work before he risked detection by those same locals. There was no way that this many workers could respond this quickly to such an event. If they had this sort of ability, then they would have done so for the previous 'events' at the school, not just this one.

That was why he never made it to the nurse's office. He'd been in the hallway next to the room, but when he heard the explosion, he'd known that something was up. An untrained civilian might not know the difference, but that had _not_ been an uncontrolled explosion. It was too regular, and too clean for any sort of simple accidental blast. Too many things didn't add up, and he'd never been one to debate whether his instincts were right or wrong before acting.

A direct attack against this sort of situation simply would not do. He was too lightly armed for combat against the sort of numbers that he was facing, and so he needed to act fast. Fortunately, he'd long had caches of weapons and equipment around the school, put there by him in case that just this sort of situation would come up. It might have been a bit more bold than the sort of attack that he would have thought would be used, but he wasn't about to quibble over such a minor point. He had more important things to do, and so he worked towards it.

Not even really slowing down, he hopped up so that he could reach an air vent, quickly popped the cover off, and grabbed the guns inside. They might have been only a M1911A1 and a Kel-Tec P11, but it was better than nothing, and would work for as long as it would take until he was able to get to one of the more powerful ones. Of course, he wasn't planning on really going after them all, as that would be wasteful, given the fact that he simply had to put out a call to his superiors to get backup.

Taking as many enemy units down as possible was not out of the question though.

Sosuke got to work, and prepared for the combat that he was likely to face.

* * *

T-elos was all things dark and dangerous as far as KOS-MOS' gestalt was concerned.

Every blow she struck was intended to kill or maim so that she could get in there to kill.

It didn't really take long, if one was not involved in the actual combat and watching from outside, for the first impasse. Even with the twin slices going from chin to just under his eyes, Ranma managed to use his twin kukri to block each attack. He'd even gotten in a sufficient block/attack during one of T-elos extensions that he'd managed to do some pretty severe damage to her right arm.

Not that T-elos wasn't ambidextrous or capable of repairing the damage eventually.

There was no time for speeches. No time for thought, much less dialogue. Had things been different, Ranma would have rarely faced a fight like this. Had this Ranma been that Ranma, he would have died within the first few moments of conflict - probably with an insult for his opponent on his lips.

This was, however, the Art in its fullness. Kata were used to drill basic manuevers and responses into one to the extent that thought was not necessary. Ranma had trained for years in the martial arts to be able to defend Hotaru. His two kukri were of nearly indestructible buckyball material and had edges a single molecule across.

T-elos determined that damage was increasing to her frame beyond acceptable limits. She changed tactics by leaping away discarding the most recent set of weapons she'd summoned - likewise now unusable. Two more leaps brought her to the top of a pillar at long range.

Parts unfolded like petals of a flower from her chest as she remained hanging in midair. A sphere of light began forming in the cup of that flower.

Ranma frowned at the break in combat. She'd figured out his weak point. She was atop a crystalline pillar now, out of immediate reach. "Kijin Raishu Dan!"

* * *

A ceiling panel moved a few millimeters, silently.

A moment later, a loop of cord settled into place around the neck of an EMT who happened to be carrying an assault rifle.

Making gagging noises, the 'EMT' was quickly drawn up into the ceiling where various crunching and thwacking noises issued.

Dropping down afterwards, Sosuke continued his hunt.

* * *

"Uhm, where is everyone else?" asked Kaname Chidori.

"Into the ambulance, miss, one of your friends was injured in the terrorist attack," said a fireman.

"Yohko?" asked Kaname, momentarily forgetting that she KNEW things were wrong here. She wasn't able to read any of these individuals around her, but she could tell Tessa was on that truck over there and that Sosuke was on the NE stairwell of the school when she tried to find them.

As she stepped up into the ambulance to find it empty she felt the syringe jab into her.

"Begin the testing," came a harsh male voice. "Make sure she's the one."

* * *

The Kijin Raishu Dan and Mouko Takabisha hadn't worked. Leaping from one pillar to the other had T-elos matching each move to maintain the distance.

This was a major problem with his attacks. While he had ranged attacks, they were more effective at short or middle distances. With T-elos maintaining the length between them - he couldn't get off an attack sufficiently powerful AT that range to cancel the attack she was building up to use against him.

"Big brother?" came a nervous comment, reminding Ranma that he wasn't alone and that the brief period of leaping around had come full circle.

Ranma glanced to the side, seeing Terminator-KOS-MOS and child-Kosmos with chaos. Waitaminute.

Incompatible energies. Chi and this other force of chaos. What if he...

Ranma turned his full attention to this. In his right hand he gathered his chi, the reservoirs he'd spent months (relative time in this sub-dimension) building up. In his left hand the energies that chaos had agreed to lend him. The two were like magnets that resisted being put together, or if he did things like so -

"like hot and cold air," whispered chaos, his words somehow carrying despite the lack of volume.

Ranma strained, trying to shift the pattern of energies. If he formed it like so, then all that would be required is to grab and twist and-

This was kind of like a kata he'd learned in kenjutsu. Might as well use the name for that.

"HIRYU SHOTEN HA!"

Ranma tried to aim and control the vortex, trying to shift it towards T-elos just as the android released her own attack.

* * *

Tessa knew the situation was all wrong. She knew the time between explosion and arrival of rescue personnel was entirely too scant for arrival of said personnel. She knew that the uniforms were off in several crucial details. She was not the only one to notice that some of the personnel armed with guns should not have had access to such weapons here in Japan, though many other details seemed to slip by those worthies as well.

She didn't see many alternatives to going along with this scenario though as the teacher seemed to have been completely sucked in and was nearly in a panic mode.

It didn't help matters any with some of the speculation about Sarin gas and other potential problems.

A secondary explosion, this one taking out a classroom on the second floor, added another detail. While it suited its apparent purpose - hurrying the students along, there were no signs of surprise among the 'rescue personnel'. Like they had known where and when it was coming. One of them had even checked his watch when it had gone off.

Conclusion: getting on those trucks would be very very bad.

Unfortunately, without calling special attention to herself, she was finding it difficult to find a way to get out of this channelled flood of humanity.

* * *

"Adjusting position of Elsa," said Tony. "Looks like the 'crack' has almost sealed itself."

"KOS-MOS..." said Shion.

"It's gone..." said Tony, watching his instruments before glancing back at Shion. "I'm sorry. They're gone."

* * *

Ranma watched as T-elos picked herself up. "Oh... hell."

"Your abilities are significant, and my assessment of you as a minor obstacle has been updated," said T-elos.

Ranma knew that he needed more practice before he used that...

"It's a derivative of the 'kanka' style," provided chaos.

"Uhm, a little help would be nice," said Ranma as T-elos leapt up into the air and formed what looked like a grenade launcher. He was kind of wiped out at the moment and really needed a breather.

"I won't let you hurt big brother," said little Kos-mos, as she turned towards her purely mechanical counterpart. "I'm sorry, but I think it's time."

Light flared, and where two had been, one KOS-MOS stood, her blue eyes looking up at T-elos.


	24. Chapter 24:Androids and Artillery

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Chapter 24: Androids and Artillery

* * *

Something big was happening, and Ranma knew it. One simply did not see two beings merge into one and not recognize that there was something significant in that action. Still, he had little time to analyze just what was going on, as he was not exactly in the best position at the moment.

After all, T-elos was ready to blast him into his component atoms, and he liked the idea of not being blown apart.

So, he scrambled away, and hurried over to where chaos stood before turning back to face where the fight was about to continue without him. Breathing hard, he tried to keep both figures in focus, as he wanted to see as much of what was going on as he could. Not that he was all that sure about his ability to help out in this instance, but he at least wanted to know how this was going to turn out.

KOS-MOS wasn't exactly unable to act on her own, as she leapt up towards T-elos. Her jump allowed the grenade that T-elos had launched at her to explode harmlessly behind her, and made it difficult for the launcher to shoot its payload at her. However, she wasn't just dodging, as she sent a punch with all her momentum in it at her counterpart's head.

Leaning back, T-elos managed to turn the blow into a glancing one, but it still sent her flying backwards towards a pillar. With a mid-air twist, she landed into a crouch on the side of the pillar, balancing herself with one hand as her feet caused a miniature crater in that vertical surface. Before she could fall, she shoved herself back into the air, heading straight for KOS-MOS. Within seconds, the two were back in contact with each other, and T-elos was sending a series of lightning fast punches and kicks at the blue hair gynoid. Stretching out one long leg as gravity started to really exert its force, T-elos smashed her opponent with a kick across the belly, sending the other part of her self arcing towards the ground.

But it didn't slow down KOS-MOS, who simply braced herself as her feet hit the ground, and slid to a stop, tearing up the earth beneath her. Her eyes stayed on T-elos though, and as soon as the destructive part of her landed, they were racing towards each other again. This time, T-elos reached out to land a punch for when they'd reach other, but KOS-MOS had other ideas. She leapt up into the air above that outstretched arm, and did a backwards flip so that when she came back down, she had a foot out for a heel drop. Doing so forced T-elos into bouncing backwards, and had KOS-MOS doing her own crouch with a leg extended out from the blow that she had meant to land.

And then they ran back at each other, ready to rain blows and dodge strikes sent at them.

* * *

The guard was dressed as a police officer, and it seemed to be a sensible enough choice. No one would be questioning why such a person would be on the look out for any sort of trouble at a disaster scene. One simply had to keep such things to a minimum, as there would would be enough chaos as it was, and the authorities wouldn't need, or want, any more, if they could avoid it. That he was actually a paid mercenary didn't matter to him, and he figured that he'd get some 'perks' on this trip, since some of the girls that they'd gotten were some choice morsels.

As a result, his mind was not quite on the mission at hand as his attention was caught by a sound from the front of the ambulance. It didn't seem to be all that dangerous, but he did have to wonder as to what it was. Even if it was simply some sort of accident, then it might delay them, and that would make his employer unhappy, which was something that he'd like to avoid.

There was less than five seconds after he saw the driver's head leaning against the glass before he recognized that it wasn't quite at the right angle. That was three seconds more than was needed for the combat knife to find the point where his neck met his right shoulder and slide in. He was dead before he hit the ground, and the corpse fell right in the direction that it had been aimed for.

So, there was no way for Gauron's 'real' guard to know that something was up immediately, and in the time that it took for him to realize that there was trouble, he had a teenaged boy kicking out his knee, and then launching an open handed strike up onto his jaw. When his head whipped back, it exposed his throat, which allowed his young opponent to strike, which was done with lethal efficiency. Wrapping one arm around the taller man's neck, he squeezed and twisted until the struggling ceased, and the mercenary went silent.

Neither action really bothered Sosuke all that much, as he understood the reasoning behind his actions. They were the enemy, and were not of the sort that could be reasoned with. More than likely, they were aiming to be threats to anyone around them, and were possibly going to harm his classmates, even though they were simply bystanders.

Of course, he was certain that a simple kidnap or hostage situation was not their true mission. If that had been the case, then everyone would have been simply shoved into the trucks, and hauled away. Instead, they had taken the time to isolate Kaname, which certainly said something about their real motives. He actually welcomed their attempt though, as it gave him a chance to use stealth to act on her behalf, something that he couldn't quite do for the captain, who was surrounded by civilians at the moment.

Ignoring the twinge that told him that he had personal reasons for what he was doing, he yanked open the ambulance door, to the surprised yells of the occupants. Standing over Kaname's prone form was a woman in a lab coat, but he didn't stop to question as to what she was doing. Instead, he tossed in a flash grenade as soon as he had the room to do so. The woman's yelp of dismay was enough for him to know that the light had affected her, and using years of practice, he slipped in quickly and knocked her out.

Doing so allowed him to turn his attention to Kaname, and he quickly freed her from the straps that bound her to the bed. Since he didn't wish to stay longer than he had to, he picked her up, and slung her over one shoulder, so that he could carry her. It wasn't the most dignified position for the schoolgirl, but it was efficient, and he didn't want to risk waiting for her senses to adapt to the change in situation.

Having her nicely curved form pressing against his body was distracting though, and even as he forced himself to focus on the job at hand, he could feel his cheeks begin to heat a bit. It was an odd sensation, but would have to be one that would have to be analyzed later. He would have the time to contemplate his reaction, and the likely one that Kaname would have when the mission was done. Right now, he still had to get her to safety, save the captain and the other prisoners, and stop the enemy.

Gritting his teeth, he set forth to do what he knew had to be done.

* * *

"That has to be one of the weirdest things I've ever seen," said Smythe, staring at the pipes.

"THAT is some technology we can't even begin to duplicate yet on Earth," said Greene. "Nanotechnology that can operate thousands of years after the owners were killed."

"So you expected this to happen?" asked Smythe, indicating where the pipes had fused together.

"Hell, no," answered Greene. "It's obvious in retrospect, but who expected any of this stuff to even hold together on the trip here?"

"I suppose," said Smythe. "It's kinda creepy though. I almost expect something to drop from the ceiling and stab me with some ovipositor or something."

"Stop watching horror movies while working on thousand-year old abandoned ships," advised Greene. "You'll sleep better."

"But..." Smythe gestured towards the pipes again.

"It isn't doing it everywhere," said Greene. "Even the nanotechnology of these aliens has its limits. Besides, if you're always looking over your shoulder - you'll miss what's in front of you."

"It's what's in front of me," protested Smythe, "that's making me look over my shoulder."

* * *

Something that Sosuke did NOT know was that Kaname WAS conscious. They'd needed her conscious for their little test, but they hadn't wanted her able to do anything physically. Screaming or fighting would have required them to permanently damage her. Currently she was about as limp as an empty set of pajamas, but she could hear and see and feel perfectly well after the initial shot had worn off. She couldn't react to anything, and felt an odd disassociation from things. Of course, when she recovered - she'd remember everything.

Including how, apparently afraid to put his hands anywhere 'inappropriate', Sosuke was allowing her to flop and bounce around.

"I'll just have to hide you... here," said Sosuke, finding a place. "Now to find the Captain."

If she'd been able to move, Kaname would have protested being tossed into a van. Especially with her skirt flipped up like this.

* * *

Little Kos-Mos and Terminator KOS-MOS were now something that looked like regular KOS-MOS, and she was fighting the almost inverse-looking T-ELOS.

Ranma generally wasn't one to sit by and do nothing. "Chi and this stuff, twist 'em like so. Then..."

"There are limitations to the 'kanka' manuever," said chaos.

"Why ain't you gettin' involved?" asked Ranma, still puzzling over the manuever.

"Because I'm NOT involved," answered chaos. "This is an important fight symbolically for both you and for KOS-MOS. In KOS-MOS' case, it will determine what aspect of her new identity is dominant. In your own case, it is that chance to finish learning the very abilities you're trying to develop."

"Even if I manage to get this 'Hiryu Shoten Ha' off, aiming it's a pain," said Ranma. "It tends to twist around."

chaos didn't say anything as Ranma prepared the attack again, waiting for an opening.

"Waitaminute," said Ranma. "What if I do this?"

_BLAM!_

"That didn't work," pointed out chaos helpfully.

* * *

"So Harlen's world might still have some degree of usefulness?" asked Jack as he walked past the "Toy Factory" as it was becoming called.

"That's right, you're coordinating with them," said Maybourne, "and then we'll have a potential new factory complex. As I understand it, your friend BOLO and Harlen are working out cyborg capabilities that combine their respective technologies."

"'Cyborg'? Like that old 'six million dollar' guy?" asked Jack.

"Something like that," said Maybourne. "I understand they have a volunteer, codenamed 'Ziggy' for the process. Quadruple amputee from that bit in Kuwait."

"Oh? Ziggy?" asked Jack. "Waitaminute. That guy the -"

"That's the one," admitted Maybourne. "Ah, here it is. The prototype we're hoping to test."

"It does look a lot like an X-Wing," said Jack.

"Well, we curved the wings, changed the cockpit, made a few little changes here and there," argued Maybourne.

"It really looks a lot like an X-Wing," said Jack.

"We also added a rear camera and mine-layer," said Maybourne, pointing to the rear. "There's a nasty surprise if someone tries to get you in a dogfight."

"Maybourne, it's an X-Wing," said Jack. "Adding a cupholder and a few Air Force stickers isn't going to change that."

"On the other hand, it goes from zero to Mach 3 in five minutes," said Maybourne. "Capable of ground to extraorbital on its own. The missiles and guns are... Jack?"

"Hmmm?" asked Jack, checking the cockpit out. "Comfy."

* * *

Haruka and Michiru were a little surprised.

"It's a good thing there was an alert at the other side of the base," said Michiru, a little uncertainly.

"Shall we?" asked Haruka as she hit the switch to open the overhead hatch.

"You want to take this... vehicle?" Michiru asked, frowning slightly at her partner.

"Sure do," confirmed the other girl.

"But... why now?"

Haruka held up three fingers, and counted off on them. "First, it likely won't be this easy again. Second, near as we can tell, they _want_ us to have it, and since they seem to have plans for us that will need our cooperation, willing or not, I don't think that they'll be aiming to hurt us just yet. And third...."

"Yes?"

"Did you realize just how hard it would be to find _parking_ for that big transforming one? I mean, I could get into it, but finding a parking space in Tokyo is already a pain. Hell, the turn radius on that thing has to be a killer."

"I see...." the violinist murmured, giving her companion a flat look.

"What?"

"Nothing much. Just realizing just that you do have your own obsessions."

"Eh? Since when?"

"No need to worry about that," the green haired teenager sighed, holding out a hand for support. "Mind helping me into this craft? I don't think that they were planning on someone wearing heels in it."

"Oh sure. There's no way that I'd leave _you_ out of this. Besides, the faster that we get into it, the quicker that I can see what sort of speed this baby can really do."

"That's my Haruka...."

The blonde blinked at the amused drawl coming from her companion, but merely shrugged it off and leapt into the pilot's seat.

* * *

It had been a relatively good plan, all things considered. As it was a simple strategy, it was highly unlikely that many things could go wrong with it. All that would be needed would be a simple alarm to go off on the opposite side of the base, and then there would be ample time for the two Senshi to 'steal' the fighter craft.

Unfortunately, _nothing_ was ever foolproof.

Just as had been planned, the sirens went off, and everyone headed over to the 'faked' emergency. What should have met them was a simple 'accident' which would have accounted for the movement of personnel, and allowed for the whole thing to be brushed off as a simple mistake. That happened with relative ease, as it wasn't exactly going unplanned.

What _was_ unexpected was the light that appeared in the sky, looking like the heavens had... cracked. A glow shone through the fissure, and it was almost pretty, given how strange it was. But no one knew what to make of it at first, since there wasn't exactly much information about such situations.

Then a shape seemed to shoot backwards out of the crack, and... into a trio of planes waiting near the runway. It smashed into the first one, sending the mangled wreck flipping onto the next jet in response to the impact, and the shrapnel from the resulting explosion caused the third to burst apart as well. All that was left was a nest of flames that seemed to imitate hell's flames.

However, that was not all that came out from the fissure, as it was clear that it was finished. No one was particularly watching the boy with the pigtail who dropped straight down from the glow and landed on his toes, with the fingers of one hand touching the ground beneath him for balance. Usually, that would be a scene to be really paying attention to, but not in this instance.

A figure flew out from the crack to land on the airstrip, both by momentum and intent. Many paid attention to the sight of what looked like a shapely young woman managing to hit the ground so that she came to a sliding stop with only her jiggling bosom showing any signs of moving on its own. That didn't impress them though, as they were looking more towards how her heels pressed into the ground so strongly that they dug grooves into the _tarmac_.

She didn't seem to take note of that herself though, as she was more focused on turning her own gaze in the direction of the flames.

And once they looked in the same direction, those watching noticed just why she would do such a thing.

Coming to a standing position was a figure that was as curved and lovely as the one outside the fire. But this one was bearing pale hair and her body hugging outfit was dark to the other's white. Her eyes showed no concern as she stood amongst the fires, her body barely showing even a singe. Rather, she turned to face the other female with an expression of dark intent, showing that this was not a friendly individual by any means.

Running towards each other, they crashed together with a sound that could be heard from the other side of the field. The force from it sent them flying apart, with the light one colliding with a power transformer, and the dark one hitting a warehouse so hard that a cloud of smoke shot up from the impact point.

They weren't finished though, as both figures charged away from where they'd landed, and went to attack each other again.

There was a serious problem going on. Part of which was that the JSDF Base had a lot of American personnel, and part was that it had a lot of Japanese personnel.

Seeing the two women fight in such a manner, with occasional actions by a pigtailed boy, that crossed the line from a fight to something out of a manga - that was a problem.

Compared to that, the fighter jet pulling out of the hidden bunker was almost nothing.

"Uranus-" said Haruka, putting her henshin wand in something that was obviously a holder for such - the clips fitting easily on the ends both above and below her hand.

"Neptune-" said Michiru, doing the same.

"- Planet Power. Make UP!" said Haruka and Michiru.

_FWASH!_ went the normal transformation sequence, except both of them felt the magic meshing and extending outward and...

"How nice," said Sailor Neptune, seeing all the previously darkened screens light up. The black leather of her chair was now a slightly different shade of her fuku's color. Hmmm. Nice sound system.

"Yeah," said Sailor Uranus, pulling the stick back and adjusting it so that the ship was now pointed straight up and hovering. "Now let's see what this baby can !"

"I really wish you'd waited until I'd buckled in," groaned Sailor Neptune from where her face was now planted against the rear glass. Her stomach, though, had impacted the console. While both had survived, one of them would likely be sporting bruises.

"I let up as soon as we reached orbit," said Sailor Uranus.

"Ah, then the queasy feeling is from rather more than my impact," said Neptune, strapping in now. "I expected more of a feeling of acceleration."

"Internal inertial dampers," said Uranus, craning her head around to try and look behind her at her partner. "Otherwise that would have been better than thirty gees according to this screen."

"I must have blacked out anyway," said Neptune. "The Earth is pretty from this angle."

"Oh?" asked Uranus, before manuevering the vehicle so that the planet was to their left. "Ah. So it is."

Neptune considered the potential artistry. Uranus considered speed and approach vectors.

"Is this capable of taking the heat of re-entry?" asked Neptune, pointing out that they hadn't originally intended to go into orbit.

"I'd think so," said Uranus. "Oh, how about this?"

Attitude jets briefly moved and they began their descent.

"We're not going very fast," realized Michiru.

"No, the problem with meteors and typical spacecraft," said Uranus, realizing this as she'd begun moving, "is that they don't fly back to Earth so much as fall. We can go slower, so let's just head... there."

Neptune looked over one of the screens on her panel. "Fakarava Island? What's there?"

"Crystal blue waters, warm beaches, and few to no people," said Uranus.

"Ah, you're incorrigible," said Neptune, amusement in her tone.

"Yes, and you're very incorriging when you want to be," agreed Uranus.

* * *

Genma stopped as he went into the doors of the partially finished dojo/monastery complex. His eyes slowly tracked to the side and he considered the odd addition. "Okay. I take it you're the defense device."

"Yes SIR! Mister BOLO had me manufactured from parts shipped in from offworld! I am 02-3467-CBR! Codename 'Cerebrus' - pleased to meet you, SIR!"

Genma managed a salute, having seen enough of these military types do it. "So, Cerebrus, if you don't mind me asking - what exactly are you?"

"Sir, you weren't briefed?" asked Cerebrus.

"Warned that an anti-fighter defense was going to be installed here, so that testing of such a weapon could begin before similar things could be built on Earth," said Genma. "Having met the BOLO, it seemed likely that you could talk."

"Yes, SIR. Very astute of you," said Cerebrus. "I am a self-aware defense-oriented battletower, with a completed mass of 15 tons. When finished, I will have a triple set of 120cm plasma cannon nicknamed 'Hellbore' and a defensive screen based on that used by Goa'uld starships. Also when finished, I will have two fusion-bottle reactors with a max output of -"

"That's quite all right," said Genma, who wouldn't understand all that tech-jargon anyway and really didn't care about such details. "Sounds nice. So you're basically there in case we get more of those big ships?"

"Yes, SIR. Anti-ship, Anti-armor is my main purpose." Cerebrus paused and Genma could hear a brief whirr of electronics. "Oooh. A red-throated quad-wing. I haven't seen one of those before. Oh. Sorry. My radar allows me to track 140 targets, though I can only lock on to twenty four at a time."

"Hopefully," said Genma, "we won't need more than that."

"SIR! May I ask a question?"

"Go ahead," indicated Genma.

"Why are you wearing black? My files indicate that this is not a normal color for you," indicated Cerebrus.

"They say my son is dead," said Genma. "Personally I doubt it. If a rip in reality was enough to kill him, then when I catch up to him in the afterlife I'm going to have to chastise him. Certainly I raised him to be a lot tougher than that."

* * *

Ranma had finally figured it out. This "kanka" thing had trouble as a ranged weapon, and he didn't really need to use it as a HTH range weapon as he was already pretty good at that range. However, his latest inadvertant dip in that information stream had given him a valuable insight even as most of it was fading.

"Shundo!" _Port_

Reappearing over T-ELOS, his blades _almost_ decapitated the enemy, who somehow avoided it before twisting around and grabbing at Ranma.

_PORT!_ went Ranma again. He could only do this in straight lines. Line of sight. It was tiring to use the kanka manuever with that channelled energy and his own chi to fuel it, having to fight to keep the energies from cancelling out and dissipating. It also seemed to wear him out more the further he went.

Glancing around him, he chose to try something a little different. First though, he needed to catch his breath before he could "kanka" again.

* * *

T-ELOS was more powerful than KOS-MOS. This should have been quickly and easily done. However there were several problems currently afflicting her combat performance.

One major one was that annoying human. A human should NOT have been able to pose a significant threat. A human should NOT be able to manifest energy attacks of increasing strength, or even maintain battle-readiness at this sort of time-length. A human most definitely should NOT continue to pull "tricks out of his hat" such as manifesting an unknown energy field that interacted with the previously emitted form to pattern new attacks.

[Warning: Unknown energy type manifestation  
Warning: Hyperspatial tunnel forming  
WARNING: Manifestation At 6:00 Position]

T-ELOS dodged, twisted, and sent a grab at the annoying human with the intent of driving her hand through his heart.

_PORT!_

Humans should NOT be able to use their unknown energy field in order to form hyperspatial tunnels of 0.05 seconds duration!

An anti-aircraft weapon was used to assault her, she casually destroyed the weapon and put a 60' blast crater into place at the same time. T-ELOS dodged the next several assaults from KOS-MOS as she processed.

[Analysis: Human designate "Ranma" is uprating performance through unknown method.  
Analysis: Human designate "Ranma" is increasing efficiency and fighting strength at high rate.  
Extrapolation: Human designate "Ranma" will continue to increase combat specs until either exhaustion or destruction of T-ELOS unit has been achieved.]

T-ELOS threw a quick series of blasts at KOS-MOS to force the other gynoid into a defensive posture, then began building up a major blast. Black wings unfurled behind her. At the last second she changed targets, shifting to her left and firing at the last known position of the normal humans watching from behind their vehicles. The blast was sufficient to eliminate them completely.

As calculated, Target Ranma attempted to intercept the blast. The resulting explosion was sufficient that any biological organism would be eliminated. Had the blast struck herself, T-ELOS estimated she would have suffered a 22% frame reduction - so dealing with an enhanced human was certainly within the destructive capacity.

T-ELOS dodged KOS-MOS' followup attack. Now there was only one target to deal with.

* * *

"ouch," said Ranma.

"Hey, you okay?" asked some blur nearby.

Ranma blinked a few times, finally making out that this was one of those soldiers from earlier. "Yeah, I figured out how to use the 'kanka' as a shield but I guess it didn't work that well."

The soldier pointed.

Ranma looked, seeing where there was a circular line. On his side, there was some broken glass and it looked like one of the vehicles had been hit by a wrecking ball or something. On the other side, the pavement was bubbling and had a sort of melted look to it.

"I don't know what you did," said the soldier, "but I'd say it worked pretty good."

All the other soldiers nodded and made sounds of agreement.

"Oh," said Ranma, trying to get up and finding his legs just weren't cooperating at the moment. "Uhm. I'm not gonna get in trouble for this, am I? I know this is all s'pposed to be kinda top secret and all."

"Are you on our side?" asked an older-looking soldier.

Ranma thought this guy's badges made him an officer of some kind. He'd seen enough of that SG military to know that much. "Yeah. I am. So is KOS-MOS there."

"Kosmos is the one in white?" asked the officer. At Ranma's nod, he nodded himself. "Okay, listen up men."

"And women," said one of the female soldiers.

"This is likely all top secret. Remember you didn't see anything. You didn't hear anything. The brass is likely to explain this all as a refueling tanker exploding and setting off a major accident or something." The officer paused and looked at Ranma. "Son, you got any other rabbits you're gonna pull out of your hat?"

Ranma opened his mouth to say something, but another explosion drowned out whatever he was planning to say.

* * *

Sergeant , USAF, had been promoted in the time between his initial days on Refuge and his current assignment. One reason for that was he had tested positive for the Ancient gene, and also positive for Silver Millenium. As one department after another tried to get him, he now found himself with some piloting experience and the rank of Second Lieutenant as far as most record keeping was concerned.

However, there was another term applied as well though less well known. Whispered.

"Okay, BOLO-san, we're at the coordinates," said Laumer, his snubship (a rebuilt Death Glider that absolutely did NOT look like a Star Wars A-Wing) scooting past a small island where a Death Glider pilot was trying to hide.

"The island has moved," said the BOLO's voice from the radio.

"They do that in shallow oceans," said Lt. Laumer. "Especially in seismically active areas."

"True," said the BOLO. "One moment. I am accessing sensor feeds."

Laumer circled the area, noting that the Jaffa woman trying to hide in the grass looked about ready to collapse from starvation. Maybe they should air-drop some of the wine-melons here, or take her as a prisoner of war. It was better than this. "HOLY! What was THAT?!"

"It cannot come close to the island," stated the BOLO. "Data indicates that is a _vaelranth_, a sort of lizard-fish that thrives in waters from 110 to 10 of your meters in depth."

"Sucker looks to be 30 meters long," said Laumer, thinking the warm blue waters didn't look nearly so inviting as they had.

"It is not dangerous to humanoid life," said the BOLO. "It is something roughly akin to your planet's whales as it filters water through gill-mouths to feed on smaller animals. The teeth are to help defend against deeper water predators."

"So you're saying, it's safe?" said Laumer, spotting the shape as it moved along the ripples of the sea-floor.

"No, not at all," said the BOLO. "The _vaelranth_ is not likely to attack humans, but it feeds on schools of _nithwaar_ who would be capable of stripping an unprotected human body down to bone within a few minutes. That the _vaelranth_ is present has likely been an attributing factor to that pilot's survival by keeping the _nithwaar_ population down."

"So it may be too difficult to reach this maintenance port," said Laumer. "It's not only underwater, but there are carnivorous fish."

"Assigning this a lower importance, please check the next site," said the BOLO.

"Roger that," said Laumer, switching his nav-system to the next checkpoint.

* * *

T-ELOS hadn't been ready for the savagery of KOS-MOS response and was preparing to unleash her Big Guns when something completely unexpected occurred.

Ranma Saotome had not only survived but was rising from the pavement?

[WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING  
Waveform Analysis: Energy Pattern Unknown  
Power Level Spiking  
Biological unit is establishing conduit to Unknown energy source.  
extrapolating Type III Civilization Power Source  
WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING  
Odds of survival: 0.00002%  
Suggested course of action: kamikaze.]

T-ELOS abandoned the combat with her other half. The human could not be allowed to establish that connection. She had to strike now. Ranged combat had been ineffective, but with his preoccupation with the current activity, she gave herself a 56% chance that converting her arm to a sword would allow her to dispatch him.

KOS-MOS struck, using a wrestling move she'd seen as her own right arm became a longsword. She thrust into the other's back between the wings, causing the blade to erupt from between T-ELOS' breasts.

Ranma dropped, losing consciousness, the blue flaming wings dying out.

"big brother," said KOS-MOS in a low tone, watching the boy fall. T-ELOS began dissolving into white light which flowed into her.

KOS-MOS blinked, her blue eyes shifting to red again in that blink.

* * *

The soldiers looked around. Buildings they'd SEEN destroyed were whole again. Mostly.

"We see nothing?" asked one of the soldiers.

"We hear nothing?" asked another soldier.

"I certainly didn't see this kid rising up into the air on wings of blue fire," said the officer. "I didn't see him rebuild the buildings. I kinda wonder who that statue is of."

"It used to be a jeep," said one of the soldiers.

"He got the buildings wrong though, windows are upside down. Doorway's..." the soldier pushed against one. It fell over with the frame.

"Rush job," said one of the female soldiers. "Oh well. Think we'll ever find out what this was all about?"

"I hope not," said the officer. "I have a feeling we got off relatively easy. Let's just get the blue-angel here to an infirmary."

* * *

Having saved Kaname freed up Sosuke a lot, as it took off one worry from his mind. It would have been relatively simple to vanish with one lone girl, and it was pretty easy to get her back, given that it didn't seem that the enemy was anticipating any real retaliation from anyone within the school. However, it was also pretty difficult to move large groups of people with any great speed, and not have them be noticed. As a result, he had some advantages in this situation, and he was going to make the best use of them that he could.

Not that he was particularly planning on having the upper hand in the situation. In fact, he wasn't even counting on any assistance from his comrades. To do so, he would have to make assumptions about strength, numbers, and arrival times that he simply wasn't prepared to do. That would leave too much open for errors, and in this instance, he could allow any mistakes. He had to save the captain, and free his classmates at the same time that he would end the enemy's ability to fight.

But that was the sort of operation that he'd been trained for. He was no raw recruit on his first mission, and he certainly wasn't about to doubt his course of action. With his experience and training giving him answers as he moved to take advantage of the school's terrain to get close to where the students were being held. Plans were already working in his mind, as he knew that he had to move hard and fast to get the sort of results that he'd need.

Some of the enemies tactics might just do the trick. 'Poetic justice' wasn't something that he was really into, but there seemed to be something appropriate about using explosives on those who'd blow up parts of a school to force its evacuation. All he would have to do would be to set up blasts at strategic spots that would disrupt the enemy's organization and cohesiveness, and if he did it correctly, he'd be able to convince the students that the danger was spreading. Then all he'd have to do would be to point them in the right direction, and they'd run for safety all on their own.

And he'd be able to snatch the captain from danger, which would allow him to take her to safety, securing her and Kaname while he ran a mop up operation.

Of course, nothing was settled right then, and even if he had a plan, he wasn't stupid enough to think that it'd work out perfectly. But it had the best opportunity for success, and he was pretty certain that he could take out some of the enemy troops in the mean time. After all, those bomb techs he'd just dumped down into the furnace room had 'provided' their own equipment in addition to his own.

* * *

Being without Ranma was like being without a part of herself, and Hotaru couldn't help but be aware of that fact. Ever since she was little, she'd known that even if she couldn't _see_ Ranma, she knew that he was somewhere out there, and able to come back to her. However, he was now lost at the very least, and it seemed that everyone who knew about the sort of thing that happened to him thought that it probably meant his death. She didn't want that to be true, and hadn't been able to actually believe in such a possibility. Even if the 'official' stand was that he was 'missing', it meant that he was likely not in a state to come back to her, and that just about ripped her heart out.

If nothing else, she just wanted to run away from it all, and go somewhere that she could get away from the pain, perhaps all the way back to Japan. Maybe there would be something there that she could focus on rather than her own hurting spirit.

* * *

Gauron nudged the shoulder of the corpse on the ground in front of him with his toe, and let his mouth tighten a bit. He'd been wondering why some of his men hadn't been reporting in as they should have been, and now he had his answer. Apparently, there wasn't only one coyote in amongst the sheep, and that changed the situation a bit.

But that fact paled in comparison with what else he'd learned when he'd come to see what was left of his guard detail. "So, the girl is missing...."

"Do you think that she could have done this?" one of his subordinates asked.

"Don't be stupid. Other than the fact that she was doped up to high hell, she couldn't kill a squirrel, never mind a trained soldier."

"I understand, sir.... GAK!"

"I hope that you do," Gauron growled, holding the man's collar in his fist. "Because right now this is the most important thing around."

"Sir?"

"Find her, and get her back. Losing that 'package' is not something that I'm prepared to do."

"But, she's only a girl...."

There was a stillness about Gauron for a moment... and then he smashed a punch into his underling's face so that blood squirted out from under his fist. "Anyone else want to argue about our mission?"

"Nuh... no sir," stammered another minion. "We'll start looking right away."

"Good. I've got something else to take care of. Make sure that you get it done."

"Yes, sir!"

Snorting, Gauron watched his men go, and knew that even they could find one seriously drugged teenaged girl. Getting her back had ever possibility of not being all that difficult, as she could be carried back for testing. On the other hand, it seemed that they had a fighter on their hands, and by the results of his work, whoever it was had skills that weren't too shabby, if he said so himself.

A small smile curved his lips as he considered the development. He'd thought that the worst that he'd have to handle would be the way that the pathetic losers that he'd hired as cannon fodder had taken advantage of the schoolgirls they'd been collecting. He hadn't minded that sort of thing all that much, given the fact that he'd already been certain that at least some of those tasty young morsels would have ended up as the toys for the mercenaries before the lot of them ended up in a watery grave. However, having grown men reach under skirts to cup the bottoms of teenaged girls under the pretense of 'hurrying them along', and lean in close to them, could cause delays in their timetable, and he'd needed to curb that as much as possible.

This had some promise of being entertaining though. There was apparently someone on the school grounds who could actually fight back, and that made him feel good. For a man who liked a good battle, it sure as hell be having no opposition at all. After all, where would the fun be in _that_? Now, he wouldn't simply have to wait around as the teenagers were herded into the trucks and taken away.

"Where are you, my little predator?" he murmured, smirking just a bit as he pulled out his Stechkin APS, already mentally prepared for his own hunt.

* * *

His name was Cerebrus. Three 120cm plasma cannon were on his turret. He could only shoot in straight lines, though if he shot at something orbitting, his maximum effective distance was 225km. If he interfaced directly with his relays and the planned cannon emplaced elsewhere on the planet, he would be able to strike at orbital threats no matter where they approached from.

Three 120cm plasma cannon that the Marines had shown a fair amount of fondness for. Second Lieutenant Laumer had dubbed them "Hellbores" and the name had stuck. Cerebrus had thought the original quote had likened the discharge to being "something coming full bore from Hell" but was inclined to doubt the accounting.

He was also watching a red-throated quad-wing, one of the pseudo-birds of Refuge.

Cerebrus understood that as an AI he was allowed hobbies, as long as it did not interfere with his duties, and was rapidly becoming an expert on local wildlife. The quad-wing, a birdlike creature with hand-wings and leg-wings, was a useful insectivore.

Of course, as he was armored and not in possession of the sort of flesh that insectile predators found appetizing, he was not particularly bothered by the gnats now beginning to adapt to human flesh.

* * *

_Kaname!_

_Tessa?_

_Be strong, Kaname._

_I can't MOVE, my head feels full of cotton, and I have to go to the bathroom!_

_They've drugged you._

_Yeah,_ sent Kaname. _Felt like they jabbed me with a damn stilletto or something._

_This is bad._

_NO kidding! Just because people who go blowing up parts of the school are kidnapping us? Go figure._

_No,_ sent Tessa. _It's bad because the connection between us is so strong and yet your mental presence seems barely there._

_I don't get it,_ admitted Kaname, _it's hard to think._

_You've been drugged,_ sent Tessa. _However one of the drugs has strengthened your talents as a Whispered. WE don't even have that!_

_I don't think I like this,_ said Kaname through the link.

_I know I don't like this,_ sent Tessa back. _I'm trying to reach Mister Sagara. His spirit aspect is a falcon._

_A falcon is a buzzsaw with wings,_ replied Kaname.

_..._

_He soars in silence, seeking the prey that can be culled from the herd, he strikes in silence, then fades away,_ sent Kaname in a dream-like 'voice' as she drifted in and out of the pretty colors.

_Okay, I think I got that,_ replied Tessa. _Mister Sagara's dossier indicates that he grew up with this sort of activity._

_Another predator now hunts the falcon,_ sent Kaname. _Lucy in the skies, with diamonds._

_Part of that made sense,_ replied Tessa. _I think maybe the drugs are having some side effects._

_KOS-MOS and chaos and change,_ councilled Kaname. _The engine idle is set too high and efficiency is off 23.427% as a result._

_I'm going to sever the connection now, Kaname, but I'll be right here if you need me,_ sent Tessa.

* * *

Sosuke Sagara was NOT well suited for a typical high school day's routine. As far as a "normal" life was concerned, he had even less experience than Ranma.

Therefore, though he definitely didn't enjoy this situation, there was a certain comfortable familiarity with it that was not present on a more routine schoolday. People trying to do very bad things to other people, kill or be killed with armed opponents - all this was perfectly understandable and something he was experienced with. He was NOT a typical high school student, but a soldier who had worked more than one side of the law. He'd gone to work with MITHRIL not because it was steady work, but because the organization was interested in doing the right thing. After all, he could find work nearly anywhere as there was always a firefight somewhere.

He was aware of the changing situation, though it was instinct and not something he could pin down. It was also inevitable that one of the guards he'd dealt with would be discovered.

He stationed himself on the roof, finding a point where he could sniper off anyone in Kaname's vicinity and also get an overview of the area.

There was a definite feel of danger that caused him to pull back, but that was familiar too.

* * *

Gauron lowered the rifle. He had a feeling he knew that boy, though that was absurd. Japanese boy. Japanese school. Maybe it was a normal schoolboy who'd been raised on movies like "Die Hard" and such, but he definitely was Japanese.

"Where have I seen him before?" asked Gauron of himself as he tried to get to a different vantage point.

* * *

Kaname didn't follow occult stories too much, but she HAD seen a few horror flicks and the like. She was... what was the term again? Oh yeah. Astrally projecting. Maybe because her body was currently in a situation she didn't want to think about and inactive.

She found Sosuke easy enough, and followed him around. He certainly seemed confident, sure of himself - in his element.

Wandering around, she came up behind two of the policemen and wondered what they were talking about.

"That teacher ought to fetch a fair price in Bangkok," said one of them. "I may have to try her out a bit first."

"Yeah, but don't forget - the schoolgirls are the ones who'll make us the most money," said the other. "Can't damage them too much before they go up on the block."

Kaname was briefly puzzled. What was this?

"There's a couple I wouldn't mind training personally," said the first.

"Yeah, if that one that the boss drugged up doesn't work out, she'd make a great #$#," said the second.

Kaname's jaw dropped, and as soon as she recovered tried to slap that one. Of course as she had left her body behind that wasn't very effective.

"I'll bet that fragile-looking blonde won't last long though," said the first. "Looks like she'd break in half the first time you tried to use her."

"Don't sweat it," said the second. "Long as you don't actually $#**, we got restraints on the ship. It's best if we break in the ones that'll try to escape anyway. That keeps the others in line."

"Oh? You've done this before?" asked the first.

"Yeah, never with this kind of numbers though," admitted the second. "Our split of the take means we'll be sitting pretty good for the next year."

"Good, gotta think about retirement and all," said the first.

Kaname moved on, thinking about potential retirements she'd like to see happen to those two. Now that she had an idea of what was planned for her classmates - she was much less caring about what a "gun nut" was going to do with them.

* * *

"Echo Two, confirmation of sitrep."

"Roger that," said Kurz Weber, looking through the binoculars. "Where's that backup?"

"Caught in Tokyo traffic, ETA - forty-five minutes to one hour," came the reply.

"Echo Two to Urzu Units, backup unable to respond within time frame," said Echo Two's voice.

"Roger that," said Kurz. "Suggest taking out their tires?"

"Make that A tire," said Melissa Mao's voice. "One flat might be a delay. More than that and they'll abandon the vehicles and we go to an active hostage situation."

"Gotcha. I'll make it one of the big ones then, more problems," said Weber, lining up the shot.

* * *

It was the sort of thing that really got on any driver's nerves. One would be attending to the day's duties, driving around and thinking of doing nothing but accomplishing some schedule or another, and _something_ on the car would go wrong. Sometimes it would merely be a need to stop at the gas station, but all too many times it would be enough of a hassle to warrant some real work. And it tended to happen just when it would be most inconvenient for it occur.

That was why the driver of the truck growled with annoyance when he felt one corner of his vehicle give way. There was only one real explanation for that, and as he and his companions stepped from the truck and headed over to the left front wheel, they saw that what was likely the culprit.

"Damn it!" grunted the mercenary as he kicked the deflated tire.

One of his 'comrades' curled his lip at the sight of the damage. "Looks like you picked up a nail or something."

"Lot of good it does us to notice it _now_."

"Whatever. Wonder why it happened now...."

"Who knows. Maybe it was just building pressure before it popped. I dunno," the driver snorted. "All I know is that I've got to get this tire changed."

"That simple?"

"Do _you_ want to explain to the boss just _why_ we're not going to be able to drive anywhere?"

"Good point," the other mercenary admitted with a wince.

"Thought so too. Just hope that fog isn't going to be the beginning of bad weather. Already got enough problems."

* * *

The 'rescue workers' hadn't really thought that anything could go wrong with the plan that had been laid out for them. Sure, it was a it risky, and they weren't going after gold or something like that, but it wasn't all that bad. Their target didn't have that much in the way of security, and they would be able to 'sample' some of the 'goods' before delivery, perhaps keeping some for themselves. For those on guard duty on the outer edge of the school grounds, it had seemed to be a simple enough job, with plenty of benefits.

They just hadn't expected to be disoriented due to a fog rolling in, but then that was easy to explain as a simple case of bad weather.

However, having a flame hit some of their guns, causing the weapons to burn their hands and misfire wasn't exactly all that understandable.

Having a tall girl in a green skirted fuku come out of the fog to attack them was actually the easiest thing to explain, and _should_ have been quickly handled. But then the girl had fighting talent and super strength on her side, which made for more of a challenge than they'd been prepared for.

Of course, at least one of them was rather pleased by the view under her skirt as she did a rather high kick that was sending him to the realm of the unconscious.

* * *

"Well, well, well," murmured Kurz in cheerful tones. "What do we have here?"

"Has something come up?" came Mao's voice over the radio.

"You might say that. Looks like there's going to be a bigger dust up than we thought."

"You didn't screw up that shot, did you?"

Even though he knew that she couldn't see him, the blond man let his face twist in an 'injured' expression. "How can you doubt my skills, my dear sergeant major...."

"Cut the crap and just report on what's going on."

"It looks like we've got some unexpected assistance here. Apparently our schoolgirl princesses have come to play too."

"The Senshi have shown up?" Melissa asked, her voice tinged with concern.

"Yup, and they're actually doing pretty well. Seems that they've been taking their lessons to heart."

"I see...."

"Yes, and I'm getting to see a lot more."

"What does that mean?"

"That I'm certainly a fan of that style of dress, and the bodies that go into them."

The sound of the non-com's growl was loud and clear over the communications equipment. "They're only fourteen!"

"So? Maybe they've got older sisters or moms or aunts that are free...."

"And if they don't?"

"I'm a patient man. I can wait," he commented airily in a tone that left no doubt as to what he was cheerfully waiting for.

"Pig."

"I prefer to think of myself as a connoisseur," he unabashedly answered as he focused his binoculars on a bosom bouncing under a pink bow.

* * *

_"Mercury 1 to Urzu 7, we are in position."_

"Roger, Mercury 1. This is Urzu 7. Request you get Mars 1 to retreat to other cover, she is too visible at present."

_"Oh, right. Will do, Urzu 7."_

Sosuke flipped the communicator closed and made sure it was set to 'vibrate' rather than give his position away with an audible signal. He had worked with the Senshi on several occasions, knew they had superior mobility and unexpected weapons they could bring into the fray. They might have been an unusual choice for backup, but he knew enough of Mercury that she would have had her computer set to monitor certain frequencies used when they'd been coordinating attacks against the Dark Kingdom. Therefore he'd tried contacting her.

Result - the Sailor Senshi were now set to perform a rescue operation.

He just hoped it worked as well as the last time they'd worked together.

* * *

"Fog?" asked Gauron as he felt the chill moist air move past him. "This wasn't in the forecast. Weather's wrong for it to be foggy."

Things were not going according to plan, and he idly noted the flat tire on one of the trucks already loaded with schoolkids. There was only one that he really needed though, so the emphasis was on finding HER.

The kid playing 'Rambo' would have to wait, the objective came first.

* * *

Sailor Mars moved through the fog, which didn't hinder her vision much due to its magical nature. When she saw a schoolgirl pass through a barricade, though, she pulled out a few wards.

"Sailor Mars? Man, I wish I had an autograph book," said the ghost.

Sailor Mars blinked. A fangirl ghost? "Okay, that's different. Are you one of the kids that was killed?"

"You can see me?!" Kaname exclaimed. "Oh, right. You're one of the Sailor Senshi. Of course you can see me! You probably run into this stuff all the time. No, I'm just drugged by the bad guys and kinda stepped out of my body for the moment. I take it Sosuke called you?"

Mars lowered the wards. "That's kind of the way things have gone. What can you tell me about what's going on?"

* * *

One of the paramedics with an assault rifle stiffened. "Man, you know that feeling like something's just walked over your grave?"

"It's just nerves. We'll be out of here soon enough." The firefighter struck a match against the side of the truck. "That and this fog. It'll make it easier for us to get going once we start."

* * *

"It's about Ranma Saotome. He's alive."

General Hammond blinked at that. "You're sure it's him?"

"Positive," said the orderly. "JSDF base has him in their infirmary. Exhaustion, burns, and some other damage. They were still trying to catalogue everything."

General Hammond nodded thoughtfully. "Send someone to make a positive ID nonetheless. He was lost in space in the Refuge system and shows up in Japan?"

"Well, this is Ranma Saotome," pointed out Captain Tsubasa.

"Point noted," said General Hammond. "Send word to the _Elsa_ that we'll need to find someone who can do a positive identification. We might just have a volunteer or two."

* * *

_"Urzu 1 this is Urzu 7, do you copy?"_

Melissa Mao grabbed the microphone. "Urzu 7? Sosuke, is that you?"

_"Affirmative,"_ came the reply.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING OVER THERE?!" asked Mao.

_"Using what resources are available. I am about to engage in Knight-Fork-Six,"_ came the radio reply.

"Waitaminute," said Melissa, trying to remember that. Hadn't that been that time in... Kuzbekistan?! No, wait that had been Knight-Two-Pawn. Knight-Fork-Six had been - "Ya gotta be kiddin' me!"

* * *

Sosuke grabbed the edge of the window, somersaulted out and hit the walkway at a run. The bark of a pistol indicated that he was drawing his tracker out.

Now, from what he had seen earlier, his backup should be over there.

* * *

Normally it would seem silly to many people that one could be afraid of a single teenaged girl, especially one in a tiny skirt, high heels, and ribbons. In the minds of many men, she would have been seen as something of an object to leer at, given the long length of legs that she showed. That she happened to be Rei Hino in her 'normal' life wouldn't be likely to be much of a concern, as they might have worried about sparking her temper, but one could outrun her anger.

At the moment though, Kaname Chidori, in astral form, was chatting with her.

"It's all true, you know. They really plan on doing that sort of thing," Kaname told her with the righteousness of the offended.

Mars' eyes had narrowed, but there was a certain control showing in them that wasn't from her normal sort of behavior. "So, what you're telling me is that they're planning on treating the girls like toys for their perverted little pleasures."

"If only that! They're going to _sell_ them to the highest bidder! That means that they'll give them to people who would do who knows what to them. I mean, it's not like there'll be any politicians around who'd be able to stop them."

"Don't be sure that any 'lawmakers' would be all that willing to 'step in'...."

"Hmmm? What was that?"

"Nothing about no one important. But I did describe what they're planning on doing, even down to some of the disgusting little things that some of them said that they wanted to try. I just don't know what _you_ want to do. There is a plan, right?"

"Pretty much."

"Are you going to do then?"

"Nothing much. I'm just going to teach those guys just about what happens to perverts," Mars said with an odd air of calm.

Not that Kaname was really thinking that the other girl was taking this with complete rationality. Had that been the case, there wouldn't have been an aura of dark red light glowing all around the girl, whose gloves audibly tightened as her hands went into fists. Nor would there have been any reason to be frightened of a glint in her eye, which just so happened to bring up a comparison to a Greek Fury. And it certainly wouldn't have been the case that those soft lips turned into a hard and cold smirk.

She wasn't all that experienced with a lot of things that had to do with the supernatural, but Kaname was pretty sure that there was a reason to be worried when the hair and red skirt of the other girl fluttered about when the air was still.

* * *

Far away from a school where there was an 'emergency', at a mansion with gardens surrounding it, a raven haired girl looked away from the four 'bright' boys sitting at the table and frowned at something in the distance.

One of the guys, a short blond boy who had a rather effeminate face, frowned a bit in concern. "Is something wrong?"

"What could be wrong with her?" asked the other blonde boy at the table. "Other than the usual?"

"It looks like something is disturbing her."

"No, that's not it," she corrected him.

"Then what is it?" asked a tall black haired boy.

"I feel a kindred spirit...."

All four of the young men had their faces twist in fear, and the pulled back, with the redheaded one saying what they all thought. "There's someone else who would behave like that...."

"Heh."

* * *

He wasn't too sure that he was the right sort of person for this sort of situation, but Mamoru wasn't about to fuss about it right now. It didn't seem to be all that good an idea to complain and grumble when there were people in danger at the moment. From what he'd been told, it seemed that these guys were not collecting the students into groups to take them on a relaxing break from their studies.

Fortunately, it did seem that his training wasn't all that bad. If nothing else, his roses were hitting their targets pretty well, cutting off any opportunity that the enemy had to strike back. Then there was the benefit of having his hand to hand training getting a boost from his enhanced abilities, since he could literally drop in on one thug, and then take out the ones next to that one. He'd already used the tactic well enough, and had found that knowing where to hit guys wearing body armor had been a big help.

Of course, he hadn't expected to see mercenaries running around screaming with the crotches of their pants literally on fire.

For a moment, he felt some sympathy for them, but that was only for those few seconds. Then he put it out of his mind, and turned back to what he was doing.

Mamoru Chiba had undergone extensive training. Partly because he was being paid for it, partly because he could see the rationale himself, and partly because he had seen the various things available for him to learn with the JSDF and especially during the assault on Beryl's base.

Throwing roses whose stems could imbed themselves in concrete was not a particularly impressive ability. Now that he'd learned something of nerve junctures and tsubo, he was able to disable human opponents without killing them. Actually killing people was not something he would normally consider doing.

_BLAM!_ "Hey, there's an intruder!"

Hearing someone shooting a GUN indicated that quietly knocking people out had just been removed as an option.

_shunk! shunk!_

* * *

"FIRE SOUL!" said Sailor Mars, throwing a flame burst that hit someone else in the crotch. This parking lot had proved to have a fair number of targets.

_BLAM!_ "Hey, there's an intruder."

Sailor Mars was aware that someone had just shot her. She also now knew that the Senshi transformation did provide some resistance to physical injury. It appeared, however, that being bulletproof supergals was not covered under the transformation.

She slumped where she was, eyes wide and disbelieving as she felt pain radiating out from her right upper leg.

"Don't see where you keep the flamethrower in that outfit," said the 'paramedic' as he approached, the gun now pointing directly at her face. "Move and I'll have to drill that pretty little head."

Sailor Mars' eyes went to her thigh, noting that the red of her blood matched her skirt. There was a lot of it too. Why was she feeling faint though, surely she'd faced worse injuries as Sailor Mars.

Her eyes went back up, facing the death being wielded not by some monstrous yoma but by a fellow human being.

"Too bad, you'd have fetched a good price," said the 'paramedic', sighting down the barrel of what currently seemed to be a small cannon to Rei's eyes.

A shape rose up from among the cars, grabbing the gun hand and twisting it, at the same time thrusting with the other hand towards the gunman's neck.

Blood sprayed again before Sailor Mars' horrified eyes. This time it was the 'paramedic' who was losing blood, and it seemed even brighter as drops flew out to drizzle on nearby vehicles.

Sailor Mars tried to focus on the soldier as he checked her over, however she was feeling oddly disconnected and "fuzzy" as the scruffy-looking youth worked. He was saying something that didn't quite register with her, though she got the idea that it was important to hold the bandage in place while he looped tape tightly around the area.

"Stay there," came the oddly echoing voice, as he got up into a crouch and began moving off again.

"That was Sagara," realized Sailor Mars. Which meant that the distortion was not external but internal.

* * *

"Whoa," said Weber. "First that fog now this."

Green lightning flared within the fog briefly. There was a white flash thereafter. Someone set off what sounded like a rifle at full auto.

"Sounds like things are getting busy," said Weber.

"_Change of plans. Just pick off anyone trying to leave unless they're a kid or one of ours_," said Mao's voice from the radio.

"Simple and straightforward, works for me," said Weber. "Of course, you realize it's all completely FUBAR at this point."

"_I noticed._"

* * *

"You!" said Gauron, holding a pistol in the parking lot.

"You!" said Sosuke, holding a pistol of his own.

"Looks like we have a standoff," said Gauron with a sneer.

"No, I don't think so," said Sosuke.

"No? Then it's a Western-style showdown between me and you?" Gauron chuckled. "You think your friends can help you, Kassim?"

Sosuke's eyes narrowed in reaction to the name.

"It took me awhile to place the details, Kassim," said Gauron. "Now we'll just finish this."

"Sounds appropriate," said Sosuke, his own pistol not wavering.

_KRACKLE ZAP!_

Gauron blinked as Sosuke was hit by green lightning and thrown off behind a car. He ducked down himself and watched as several of the school's cheerleaders converged over where Sosuke had gone down.

No, not cheerleaders. They must be agents with some more of that ancient technology. Or was that Ancient technology? Whatever the case - this operation was clearly comprimised.

Fortunately, he could always bide his time and try again.

Next time he knew he'd have to go after the cheerleading squad first.

Gauron smiled as he wove his way out, abandoning his men to their fates.

* * *

"Oh HECK," said Sailor Jupiter, looking down at the twitching Sosuke Sagara. Glimpse someone with a gun, fire off her attack, and - this qualified as a 'major oopsie' as Sailor Moon might say.

"He might hesitate to call us in if this happens again," was Sailor Mercury's opinion as she checked the fallen soldier's vitals.

Sailor Moon considered various things she might say and was just privately glad that it hadn't been her Mamo-chan who'd gotten zapped.

Mamoru, having gotten into a position from where he'd been using his talents to heal and stabilize Mars, was likewise glad that hadn't been him. Jupiter's attack had clearly gotten stronger of late.

* * *

If there was something that Ami was really thankful for as the battle finished up, it was that the military people had seen fit to help her out with her medical studies. Having been offered that opportunity had seemed like a simple benefit to grab on to since she had welcomed the chance to get some hands on experience. It was one thing to learn from books, but it was quite another to actually get instructions from people who had been doing that sort of thing for years. Not only did she learn some immediately practical things, but she knew that she had been taught things that would make her future aim of becoming a doctor that much easier.

Unfortunately, she didn't know how to ease the guilt that her friend was feeling.

It was obvious that Jupiter wasn't exactly thrilled with what she'd done. Anyone could tell that by the way that she kept on looking towards her feet as she dejectedly shuffled around. Blaming her for blindly shooting before getting confirmation of what she was aiming at when Mercury was giving her plenty of cover could have been easily done by anyone around her, but the blue haired Senshi didn't have the inclination for that at the moment.

Instead, she was carefully kneeling next to Sosuke's prone form, and was putting her training to good use. Luckily, her patient wasn't a fragile flower, about to collapse at even a simple brush of the hand.

"Good news," Mercury murmured as she double checked the scans that she'd been running from her computer. "From what I can see, he just got an electrical shock. The charge was enough to disrupt his nervous system, but not badly enough to really do permanent damage."

"Ummm... Could you explain that in plain Japanese? I'm a schoolgirl, not a doctor," Venus commented, looking rather confused.

"He only got shocked enough to make him drop and hurt him, but he's fit enough so that a little bed rest and care will let him get back to health."

"That's good to hear. I guess him getting hit wasn't quite as bad as it could have been."

"Unless you're the one who zapped him," Jupiter muttered, hugging herself as she seemed to shrink away from any show of self respect.

"At least you didn't mean to do it."

"Yeah. Great distinction."

"In the meantime, he'll need to be watched over. That shouldn't be too hard," Mercury told the pair.

"What? Where are you going?"

"I'm the one taking medical training, remember? Mars is supposed to be seriously hurt, and someone should check on the students here."

Jupiter sighed at herself. "Which leaves us with him... after I zapped him. How could I have been that dumb?"

"We're used to fighting yoma, not humans. It's not exactly like it'd be totally similar."

"I guess so...."

"Now, if you don't mind, I have other patients to check before the real doctors can take them on," the juku student reminded them, heading off to look for more injuries to treat.

* * *

Melissa Mao stood at the front door to the school and watched as the cleanup of the 'situation' continued. With so many of the mercenaries hurt, disorganized, or simply dead, it wasn't exactly a difficult proposition. They hadn't been expecting that level of resistance, and their opponents had come in forms that weren't quite that of the regular soldiers.

However, as she watched Sailor Mars get slipped into a waiting, and _real_ ambulance, she understood that this also wasn't the sort of clean op that it could have been under other circumstances.

And Kurz Weber, striding up to her, looked like he wasn't about to avoid the obvious. "Looks like this has turned into a bit of a screw up, hasn't it?"

"Thanks for the info," she muttered dryly at him. "You get to be the sniper you are with those senses?"

"Pretty much. They haven't let me down yet."

"How nice for you."

"But not for long. You know, her father's a politician," the blond man commented, nodding towards the ambulance that the Senshi was being taken away in.

"Which will make it a pain for us. I'm sure that they'll have some sort of cover story, or another."

"I could always check out her legs. You know, to know what sort of injury would have to be explained away."

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Melissa sighed. "Just _why_ you have to act the part of a pig, I don't know know, and don't _want_ to know."

"So cold, my darling dear...."

"Keep your compliments to yourself. My main concern is making sure that everything is secure. Including...."

"Sosuke?" Kurz guessed, and grinned at the mild confirmation on her face. "Well, he _is_ part of the team."

"Who got hurt in a friendly fire incident."

"Fortunately, the promise of Mercury's beauty matches the promise of her intellect...."

"Which means...."

"She checked up on him, even using her computer, and made sure to handle the first response. Quite well, to be honest."

"Good. Though, I don't know what that 'Jupiter' girl was thinking when she did that. Where's Sosuke now?"

"Taken away to get care in a better place than a schoolyard. Not as fun as going to the nurse's office, but I suppose this is better."

"Ha ha. Luckily, Sosuke will be concentrating on getting better."

"I'm pretty sure about that too. Only... I have to wonder about who will be his roommate," Weber murmured thoughtfully.

* * *

Had Ranma been conscious, he might have taken note of the sudden influx of activity in the room that he was in. He would have realized that the people weren't there for him, as they didn't head his way. Then he'd have to look to see the patient who was at the center of the concern, perhaps even getting an opportunity to recognize the individual.

But Ranma was currently sleeping after the chaos involving T-ELOS, which came from the fact that he had been injured, exhausted, and gone through a long and stressful time. He needed his rest, and after all the energy that he'd expended, he was going to get it, even if he didn't have to intentionally try to recover. As it was, he merely grunted in his slumber, and turned his face away from the noise that was disturbing him.

Of course, the medical personnel weren't trying to bother him as they slipped their patient into the bed next to his. There was a need to work and communicate when doing something like that, which meant that it wasn't all that possible to be silent. However, they did keep it down, and made the transition as quick and as quiet as possible. After all, it was best for both patients to cause as little disruption in their environment as possible.

It actually went quite well, and when they left, no one would have been able to notice that Sosuke Sagara had not been Ranma's roommate only moments earlier.

* * *

Voices penetrated the sleepy fog she found herself in.

"So if I put it here, it slides in there, and then it fits... oh, I see."

Rei's eyes shot open. She was in an odd bed, in a small room with curtains for walls completely surrounding her.

"Gotcha. This must fit here then. It feels about right."

"PERVERT," growled Rei, wondering where she was.

"Sounds like our neighbor is awake," said the same voice, which she now placed as belonging to that Japanese boy who was with the American military.

"I do not understand how this can be perverted," said a VERY familiar voice. Sosuke Sagara.

"She's a girl. Just accept that she ain't never gonna make sense to a guy," said Ranma. "At least that's what my Pops is always saying."

"Your father sounds very wise," said Sosuke.

"HEY!" protested Rei towards the curtain at the foot of her bed. It sounded like they were maybe three feet beyond that.

"Maybe. Sometimes. Just a little," said Ranma. "Sometimes not so much."

"I see," said Sosuke. "Anyway, that's all there is to it."

Rei's eyes narrowed, if it was Sosuke - most likely they had a gun they were taking apart and putting back together.

"So what does this DO, exactly?" asked Ranma.

A woman's voice answered this time. "It fires explosive homing penguin missiles."

There was dead silence following that for a few seconds, broken only by a crow cawing somewhere nearby.

"Well, it certainly wouldn't be anything an attacker would expect," said Ranma.

Rei blinked, hopped off the bed, took two quick strides, and discovered that the leg she'd been shot in didn't think any of that was a good idea.

"AKKK!" Rei stumbled and fell, grabbing at the curtains to stop her fall. _RIP!_ Make that - flailing about as the curtains ripped free. _WHACK!_ Landing on someone, head meeting head.

"Okay, this is different," said Ranma, noting that nobody had landed on him.

"This sort of thing seems to happen more than would be counted for a strictly random number," offered KOS-MOS.

"Well, if ya gotta be injured, do it at a hospital, I guess," said Ranma.

* * *

"You have failed," said one of the shadowy figures.

Nothing about Gauron's expression or stance indicated he was particularly intimidated. "I withdrew when the situation changed. I didn't really expect this to go 'by the book' since there were too many unknowns involved. Now you and I both know more about the situation."

"So, you are saying that this was not a failure?"

Gauron chuckled, though the sound lacked humor. "It would only be a failure if nothing was gained. Instead there's a few facts which have come to light, haven't they? The girl, Kaname Chidori, IS guarded. Not only by Kassim, but by these others."

"You didn't take them into account, you mean?"

Gauron's eyes were cold enough to measure in degrees Kelvin. "Did I have any reason to expect cheerleaders using some of your Black Box Technology? It was enough of a surprise to find Kassim there."

"The minions you utilized are talking, but there is nothing to link them with you or with us," said another figure.

"In the meantime," said another of the 'businessmen' facing Gauron, "there is another task for you to accomplish."

Gauron shifted. "I'd prefer going after Kassim. It would be better to make sure that he's dealt with before any other attempts at that schoolgirl are made."

"They would simply rotate in another guard, one whose identity is less known," pointed out the first 'businessman' in a bored tone. "Your desire for vengeance will be indulged, but if you're up for a little travel - we've a rumor of some interest in the United States to chase down."

"You want ME to dig for information?" asked Gauron, communicating in that simple question that he was not terribly suited for subtle coaxing or spying.

"Sometimes you need a shovel, sometimes you need a hammer," said the first 'businessman' in his bored voice. "There may be someone who responds well to your brand of persuasion."

* * *

Lieutenant Susan Mayo threaded her fingers together and extended her arms above her in a full body stretch that made a popping noise somewhere under her tightly fitted uniform.

The two in the doorway of their home stared at her briefly, not realizing what was going on yet.

A smile gently teased her lips as she stood there only a few steps away. "Sailor Uranus. Sailor Neptune. I'm Lieutenant Susan Mayo, USAF go-between to the JSDF. Among other names and titles."

"We're not," began Haruka.

"I am also called Sailor Pluto," continued 'Susan' in an amiable tone. "Shall we speak?"

"That explains something," said Michiru. "Do come in then."

"Can I see some ID?" asked Haruka after 'Susan' had entered.

"Pluto Planet Power - Make UP," responded the officer.

After the transformation, Haruka was ready to respond the same way, but Pluto held a hand up.

"So, is this a social call?" asked Michiru.

"Not really, I felt you two needed to be caught up on recent events, particularly in light of things developing right now," said Sailor Pluto. "You might want to be seated for this. Pour yourself a drink too. This will take awhile."


	25. Chapter 25: Bases and Burdens

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Chapter 25: Bases and Burdens

* * *

One might not have thought of it as a place to rush about, but the hospital had seen such activities. Family members and friends of injured or sick people did tend to want to see them soon, though most didn't run unchecked through such a place for long. This was especially true in this facility, due to the fact that it was a military one, making it so that the rules tended to be enforced.

But then, there usually wasn't someone who barely waited for a car to stop before shoving the door open and leaping out.

This led to another odd occurrence, as it made it so that people wound up having to hurry out of the way so that they didn't get underfoot. As not doing so would have resulted in them either being run over, or getting slammed into, it was perfectly logical to take the action. What was terribly strange about it was that the individual in question didn't seem to be the sort to have the physical strength to do something like that.

Not that she particularly seemed to care. Instead, she kept to her purpose, and charged down the hall like a firefighter rushing towards a blaze. An observer might have thought that she would risk getting lost, but she never wavered from heading towards that one spot that that would get her to where she was going.

That was why the nurse at the admitting desk was surprised to the point of almost jumping out of her seat as a pair of small hands slammed onto the top of her desk and violet eyes bored into hers.

"Which room is Ranma Saotome's?" Hotaru Tomoe asked, looking so determined that it was clear that 'no' was not in her vocabulary.

* * *

Gauron wasn't normally someone who affected the whole 'cool guy in sunglasses' thing, but he still wore them anyway. As it was, he just had them on when he felt like it, or needed them. To him, trying to put on air of 'cool' like that was stupid, considering what it would cause them to miss.

In his case though, it was less of a 'look' that he was going for, and was more to handle small little issues. He already knew that he was a tough guy, and merely liked wearing sunglasses, but this time it helped cover up the effects of his travelling. Having gone from Japan to his latest assignement, he needed to get something that would help his eyes relax with the different light and the long hours in planes and such.

To tell the truth, he could have gotten some help, and still could have right then. If he called the two sisters, they would have certainly come running, and given that they were attractive young women, he could even have them tease and tempt some idiotic young soldier into getting himself into the position that they wanted from him. Of course, the problem with that wasn't that they wouldn't sleep with someone that he told them to, but that it was entirely likely that they'd want to kill the man for what he'd done, once they had no more use for him.

Perhaps he'd use that later, but right now, he had better things to do, and he could handle the situation himself for the time being. Those two might have been eager, but they weren't as experienced as he would like. Having them might cause him more of a mess than he'd like, and he really didn't want to have to deal with guys getting cold feet over being with teenaged girls, or said young 'ladies' slitting their throats for it. No, it was better to just come and do the job that he'd been given.

It was what he'd come to Colorado for, after all.

* * *

To be honest, Ranma was finding that being in the hospital wasn't as bad as he might have thought it would. The fact that he wasn't terribly hurt or sick did help in that regard, but the truth was that he had found some things to enjoy about it. After all, he'd gotten to know Sosuke there, and he did seem to be a pretty nice guy. They had a lot in common, what with being raised outside of 'normal channels', moving around a lot, and being trained in fighting their whole lives. That wasn't to say that they were totally the same, as Sosuke was a soldier, and he was a travelling martial artist.

What he hadn't expected for a slim young woman to rush in towards him. "Ranma!"

"Hotaru?" he murmured, blinking in surprise.

"Ranma!" she sobbed, and, looking less than a possible force of destruction, and more like a relieved young girl. "It was so awful! They told me that it seemed that you were _dead_!"

"Nope. Wound up in another dimension, got ta train some, and wound in a fight. But me? I'm just peachy."

"Then... then...."

"I'm okay."

"I'm so glad!" Hotaru admitted... before giving off another little cry as she leaned into his chest and clutched onto his shirt with both hands. "If anything happened to you.... That time was...."

Uncertain as to what the protocol was for such a situation, Ranma carefully slipped his arms around her, taking note about comfortable that really was nice.

* * *

Setsuna held the remote as the videotape she'd made was paused. "Okay. This is a Asgard warship."

"Aliens?" asked Haruka, a little surprised. "Little green men?"

"No, actually they're not green," said Setsuna. "They're a technologically advanced alien race, no magical capacity to speak of, and they are more or less on our side."

"'More or less'?" asked Michiru.

"They have laws against interfering with backwards cultures," said Setsuna. "Including ours. This" _click_ "is Urd. She's of a related species."

Haruka looked at the amount of skin showing, the dangerous curves, and frowned thoughtfully. "Dark General?"

"No," said Setsuna. "More annoying and she likes to tease. Oh, great moons, DOES she like to tease. Also has a Noninterference Treaty, but she seems to forget about it on an irregular basis. More or less on our side. As I may have indicated, the situation is complicated."

"Are there two moons behind her or is that a problem with the tape?" asked Michiru.

"Two moons," said Setsuna. _click_ "Okay, I'll give a general summary. A Japanese national named Soichiro Tomoe got involved with an American project involving something called a 'Stargate' - which can be linked to another Stargate somewhere outside our solar system. If you have the right address, you can use it to reach any similar Stargate within our galaxy. Possibly further, I'm unclear on the exact capabilities and limitations.

"Soichiro got his daughter involved, whom you know as Sailor Saturn. The Destroyer, the Silence, the End Of The World."

"Who is currently a teenage girl with a boyfriend," said Michiru, looking at the footage of the young girl and boy.

"This is just SO wrong," said Haruka, trying to reconcile the shy-looking girl on the video with the Sailor Saturn she'd seen in the Silver Millenium.

"Her boyfriend or fiance, though he's just her bodyguard if you ask him," said Setsuna. "Is Ranma Saotome, heir of the Saotome School Of Indiscriminate Grappling." She took out a piece of paper. "He's been trained extensively in tai chi, shotokan karate, wing chun, jeet kun do, ninjitsu, Force Marine Special Ops Style, goju ryu, a few others I'd never even heard of before."

"He couldn't be old enough to have studied all that," said Haruka.

"He's a natural at that sort of thing," said Setsuna. "Picks up new martial arts styles quickly and thoroughly. Not above using weapons either, though his school teaches not to rely on a single weapon or tactic."

"So he's a martial arts guru, not exactly what I'd expect for the Senshi Of Death to find intriguing," said Haruka.

"She's mainly the Hotaru of this life," said Setsuna. "As such, things are a little different."

"So we'd gathered," remarked Michiru.

"The Americans using the Stargate found out a few things, such as the fact that there are several menaces to our planet," said Setsuna. "Whereas the Senshi approach has typically been to let menaces come to us, the approach there is to go fight on the enemy's terrain wherever possible."

"How American," said Haruka with a certain disdain.

"This is one such menace," said Setsuna, advancing the video. "They are called the 'Goa'uld' and they are a parasitic lifeform that invades a human body. Once inside, they send out hair-thin tendrils of at least four different types. Some carry nutrients from the host's body to the parasite, some allow the parasite to assume control of the body, one sort is photosensitive link that goes to the subject's eyes, and the fourth carries certain poisons it will release if it is killed prior to the host."

"Yuck," was Haruka's first impression of a dead Goa'uld on an exam table.

"Yes, that is the general impression most people have," admitted Setsuna. "They give their hosts greater strength, increased healing ability, can filter out a wide variety of diseases and poisons, and have really long lifespans. They are not inherently magical or psychic, though if they inhabit a host with those talents they can use those."

"So they don't have any special defenses against 'psychic or magical' assaults," said Michiru.

"I wouldn't try a psychic attack if it were available," said Setsuna. "They are old, thoroughly evil, and have a very strong will. Though the Asgard told me of a group of Goa'uld that are less interested in the whole 'Evil Monster' role and seeking more along the line of symbiosis."

"But they're still fugly things that invade people's bodies?" asked Haruka.

"Yes," admitted Setsuna.

"Hmmmm," hmmmed Haruka. "Well, we-"

"-have an experimental ship built from what the JSDF and Mithril were able to put together from scraps of Ancient and Silver Millenium technology, that an Asgardian named Skuld was able to make functional," finished Setsuna. "Urd and Skuld are sisters. Urd knew about the little private project. Urd and Skuld are here because of these two."

"Keichi Morisato?" asked Haruka, looking fairly surprised.

"You know him?" asked Setsuna, who WAS surprised.

"Racing circuit, competitor, one of those who wasn't a prick," said Haruka. "Stopped attending about a year ago. Heard he was paying off student loans."

"Essentially," said Setsuna, pausing the tape again with the picture showing a young man and young woman having a picnic with some medieval-looking village in the background. "The woman is another of the Asgard, who has settled into the role of 'alien psychic girlfriend' or something as if in some manga series. Her name is Belldandy."

"What about the 'noninterference treaty'?" asked Michiru, feeling an unexpected pang of something. Not jealousy or envy, of course, but the woman on the video screen seemed to have a serene elegance that was at least the level she herself strove for.

"This is a work-around," said Setsuna. "Mind you, that wasn't stated directly, merely something I've inferred from various comments. Apparently they've got their own enemy, and that enemy is here on Earth and would very much like to see the human race knocked down a few pegs."

"You mentioned a 'Mithril' earlier?" asked Haruka.

"International secretive organization, apparently very interested in alien technology," said Setsuna. "I mostly know about that because Urd was rooting for some girl named 'Teletha' who is pursuing a young soldier named 'Sagara' who is himself assigned to guard some girl named 'Chidori.'"

"I take it that this 'Urd' likes soap operas," said Haruka in a dry voice.

"I got that impression myself," said Setsuna in an equally dry tone. "There is also THIS."

"Is that a mountain?" asked Michiru.

"Is that a tank?" asked Haruka.

"Yes," said Setsuna. "Another of humanity's 'allies' apparently. It is called 'the BOLO' and it is a planetary defense unit that was shut down by another enemy. Whom I have determined to be an evil Senshi."

* * *

Sosuke Sagara, Rei Hino, and KOS-MOS were present. Sosuke was fascinated, never having encountered this sort of situation before. Rei was embarassed and feeling as if she were peeking on a private moment. KOS-MOS was coolly observing and making note of the events in progress, part of her observation-emulation routine.

KOS-MOS noted a number of things about the situation and determined that male/female interaction was complicated. Apparently some subjects were taboo, which was not logical but eminently human.

* * *

The situation wasn't one that Ranma was entirely sure about. That wasn't to say that he didn't understand the concept of comforting Hotaru as she'd been clearly distraught. Rather, he didn't exactly know what he was supposed to do to make it better for her. His training had always been focused on physical matters, and so his counselling ability wasn't exactly expansive.

He wanted to give it his best shot though. "Hey... um.... At least it's ended well, ya know."

"I didn't want it to have happened in the first place!" Hotaru sniffled, glancing up at him as she pressed her cheek against his chest. "To even have it _possible_ that you... you...."

"I'm here now...."

"That's the only thing that makes it okay. If you were to really go...."

"Actually, that ain't 'xactly in the plans for my future, if I have anything to say 'bout it," he informed her matter of factly.

"It wasn't planned for that time, was it?"

"Well... no, not really...."

Her hand tightened, clutching the fabric into her fist. "Why then? Why'd you go and let yourself get into danger like that?!"

"'Cause of you."

"What?"

"Listen. There were only a couple of choices," the pigtailed boy told her, all trace of mockery, joking, and teasing gone from his voice. What he needed was to get the facts out in a serious matter, and he knew that much at least. "I coulda waited, but then that'd have risked your life. Since that wasn't an option, I hadta get ya outta there. But if I carried ya, I might not make it. And it could be slow."

"So you _threw_ me?"

"Only way ta be sure that ya'd get there safe. Ya mighta gotten a few bumps and bruises...."

"More than a 'few'," she corrected him, just a bit sourly.

"Sorry 'bout that. But I hadta do it. Between the choices of ya gettin' killed, and ya gettin' a little discomfort, I'd be willin' ta let ya feel a bit of pain. Much as even that bothers me, I ain't gonna let ya die, no matter what."

"Oh."

"That's it?"

"Ummm...." she hummed for a bit, shyly ducking her head against him. "Really? You don't know how much that means to me."

"That so?"

"Uh-huh. I've always liked how you want to protect me. Though.... If you were okay, why not let me know?"

"Couldn't."

"I guess that it wasn't possible then...."

Giving a small shrug, the martial artist nodded. "That too."

"Huh? What's that mean?"

"Ta be honest?"

"Yes?"

"I wasn't 'bout ta contact ya from there."

"WHAT?!" yelped a feminine voice that was certainly _not_ Hotaru.

Everyone else turned to face the speaker, and frown in admonishment.

Rei's cheeks turned a bright shade of red and she winced a little. "Sorry."

"She is right though," Hotaru murmured, staring worriedly up at Ranma. "Why wouldn't you do that?"

"Simple. If I coulda sent a message, then I had a chance ta get out. And if I coulda chosen ta simply tell ya that I was okay in a message, or actually show up in front of ya, I'd do the second one."

"I... would want that too."

"Trust me, Hotaru. The two of us ain't gonna just be leavin' each other without somethin' outside of us gettin' in the way. If I can still find a way ta get back ta ya, I will."

"You will? You don't know how much that means to me," the short haired girl admitted as she rested her forehead against his shoulder.

"You're that happy 'bout that?"

"I've _always_ wanted you to be around me. Ever since I was little, I knew that you were the most important person that I could think of."

"What 'bout your dad?"

"Okay, so he's important to me too. But he's my _Dad_. It's not the same thing."

"'Cause I'm your friend, not a relative."

"Ah.... something like that."

"'Best friend', then?"

"More than that...." his childhood friend whispered, letting her hair block her expression at that moment.

"Wow. I didn't think that ya'd hold me up that high."

"You didn't?"

Ranma gave a bit of a self mocking grin. "It ain't like I'm gonna know a lot 'bout how ta do a lotta stuff. But so long are ya happy...."

"I'm more than 'happy' about you...."

"Hey.... Didn't think that we were doing so well as friends...."

"I'm not talking about 'friends'!" the girl in his embrace bit out.

"Then what _are_ ya talkin' 'bout?"

Hotaru pulled back just a bit from him, and seemed to take a measure of him from their shared gaze. For a moment, indecision crossed her features, and when it firmed up, she was obviously intent on doing something.

A blushing Rei, a fascinated Sosuke, and an observant KOS-MOS all watched as the petite and delicate looking girl placed her small hands onto either side of Ranma's face, pulled his head gently towards him, and leaned up to press a soft, yet emotional kiss upon his lips.

'Is she doin' what I think she is?' the pigtailed boy thought to himself as the shock wore off, and the reality got recognized. 'This.... This is pretty good.... Feels nice.'

Apparently Hotaru agreed, as she showed no signs of stopping it.

* * *

"Each of the ships delivered to our allies is being prepared, and we are currently at work with building upgradeable starfighters that will still allow us to maintain an advantage," said Colonel Maybourne. "Have you seen these?"

Colonel O'Neill took the stack of photographs, flipped through them, then handed them off to Daniel. "They look... interesting I suppose."

"Kind of birdlike," stated Daniel Jackson.

"Between the BOLO, our mechanical canine advisors, the new parts facilities on two worlds that you yourselves recently assisted in getting us - this last being why I'm showing you this, we've jumped designs several times," stated Colonel Maybourne. "Officially it's called the F-302. One of the main features is that it uses a modular design where we can easily upgrade sections without replacing the whole fighter. We're not able to build them as fast as we'd like, but with the parts coming in from Xeno - we can average two per week."

"Sounds interesting," said Jack, acting noncomittal.

"We know about the Goa'uld scoutship in lunar orbit," said Colonel Maybourne. "They are apparently planning to attack us. We're just trying to find as many resources as we can before it all goes up."

"So why did you call us up for this?" asked Daniel. "Oh, I understand you feel we've been doing an adequate job."

"'adequate'?" asked Jack.

Colonel Maybourne nodded, his smile vanishing. "We've learned of an enemy here on Earth. They recently made an attempt at capturing people of interest to the JSDF, and hence to us."

"So they're getting intel from somewhere over here?" asked General Hammond. He didn't trust Maybourne. Nobody did. Still, Maybourne had played as straight with him as he was likely allowed to.

"There are leads we're exploring, but I've got a favor to ask in that regard," said Colonel Maybourne. "Specifically, lending us the use of one of your allies..."

* * *

The videoscreens all displayed different scenes. There was one that was the main focus of everyone involved.

"Okay, who won the betting pool?" asked one of the watchers as the scene in a certain hospital room continued.

"Someone named... Lieutenant Mayo," said another watcher.

* * *

Ranma wasn't sure what to do. On the one hand, he did like Hotaru. Hotaru was a very nice girl whom he trusted and he'd devoted a great deal of time and effort into protecting her. He had NOT seen her as other than a friend and an important one.

Except now she was kissing him. This seemed to kickstart all sorts of warring impulses and drives off, most of which were all heading in different directions.

"Whoa, I think he just froze up completely," said Rei with a very amused tone in her voice.

"I... see," said a nearly as frozen Sosuke.

"Interesting," observed KOS-MOS.

"Hey guys, I... huh?" said Kaname Chidori as she entered the room and came to a complete stop. "oops."

* * *

Gauron looked at the photograph, then at the sidewalk cafe, then again at the photograph. This person was Japanese, but among those working at the facility, and considered to be of considerable interest to his clients.

"I don't get it," said Gauron. Kid was young, fresh out of college, not exactly what he'd call 'military-grade', and obviously just a young boy out with his girlfriend. He looked about as likely to be a threat as a bag full of kittens - something you could drown in the nearest canal without effort at all.

Yet SOMETHING was causing his instincts to keep flashing warning signs at him whenever he started getting close. Something more dangerous than Kassim.

If the boy was alone for a few minutes, that would probably be all that was required. Then maybe he could get the answers he needed.

* * *

"Fast?" asked Haruka.

"Quite," said Setsuna.

"Manueverable?" asked Haruka.

"More than anything I've seen," said Setsuna.

"Large guns?" asked Haruka.

"Huge," agreed Setsuna.

Haruka managed to do the dreaded Puppy Dog Eyes manuever. "Can I fly one?"

"You'd have to take that up with the Asgard," said Setsuna.

* * *

Codename was Wraith. Suitable for a Covert Ops specialist.

Disguised, with a voice changer, and equipped with everything necessary to do the job.

"Rotten filthy incompetent idiot."

There was a fly in the ointment though. An idiot who only knew military responses to any situation and was entirely too close to the person being watched. Every rule about this sort of operation was being broken if not actively flouted.

Well, there could be some momentary amusement.

A sniper rifle was brought up, the scope adjusted, the laser targetting engaged, and a faint touch on the trigger. If experience was any indication, that 'fly' would go completely spastic in response.

* * *

Wraith really did believe in the 'cause' that Mithril stood for. That was certainly better to fight for than the sort of thing that previous employers had tried for. Otherwise, the money would have been enough for the sort of black ops mission that would have had civilians placed into torture chambers simply because someone felt like it. Not that there was any particular fondness for any of the others involved.

So, it wasn't a hard thing to jerk Sosuke Sagara's 'chain', so to speak, as he was something of a blockhead. The guy couldn't understand simple things about blending in with civilians, but he was amusing. All it took was one simple aim with a rifle to make him ready to jump up, knocking desks over, and winding up in rather embarrassing situations.

When one didn't exactly get a lot in the way of 'breaks', one took one's 'fun' where it could be found.

That being the case, the scope was pointed right at the head of the 'marionette', ready to yank on his 'strings', certain that there would be yet another instance of Sagara's spastic reactions.

* * *

As soon as the hair prickled on the back of his neck, Sosuke knew that something was wrong. Danger was nearby, and his instincts told him that he had to act fast. With the sort of life that he'd lived, this resulted in him bypassing conscious thought, and merely reacting.

From her point of view, Kaname just got the shock of her life as the soldier boy leapt from his bed to onto her, knocking her to the floor. For a long moment, she lay wide eyed with him laying on her body, her breasts squashed against his chest. But then he sat up slightly, straddling her thighs as he turned to look at the window behind him.

Of course, that also allowed her to see two dark haired girls fingering something in their hands, the pigtailed boy looking ready to pounce from behind his bed, and the blue haired girl literally changing her right arm into a cannon with a laser sight, pointed at the window.

She didn't know which freaked her out more, the fact that they were ready for battle, or that Sosuke was still on her, in a position that could be taken as 'kinky'.

* * *

Being invisible _should_ have blocked any attempt to lock onto Wraith's form somewhat. Having the dot of a laser sight pointed right at the chest made it clear that such a defense wasn't going to work. As it was, the cloak had little effect on what could have been a 'Mexican stand-off'.

However, Wraith had a rifle that allowed for super accurate shots with a close view of the target.

The girl on the other side had a cannon arm that looked like it would just have to hit the roof to make a rather painful explosion happen.

Given what was known about the 'girl' in question, and wishing that the 'girl' hadn't been concealed from view until just now, discretion seemed to be the better part of valor for the day.

* * *

Gauron had always been someone who disdained those who simply fought with 'instincts'. That wasn't to say that he dismissed such things, but what didn't like were the people who didn't bother with actual thoughts in fighting, and just jumped into a situation. In those instances, they'd get some inkling and leap to a conclusion where they'd either run from something that wasn't dangerous, or would run in when death was assured. In his case though, his instincts had been honed through battle, and experience had tempered and strengthened them until he knew that they worked by taking note of his training, and what he had already gone through.

At the moment though, he had a sense that _something_ was wrong with what was going on around him.

Not that he could particularly see anything that would be a reason for concern. The kid was not exactly 'tough' looking, and didn't even seem to need to be nagged into doing something. Of course, his girlfriend was a lovely young thing, with long legs and big breasts who managed to look 'innocent' even with the tattoos on her face. She could provide the mercenary with plenty of enjoyment, and he knew it, so he was also aware that he could see why the guy was willing to let her lead him around. But other than her, the guy didn't have much in the way of company, and when she left, likely to 'take a powder', or some crap like that, he had an opportunity to have a 'chat' with the boy.

"Looks like you're having a nice time," he murmured, coming out from behind the youngster.

There was a moment of panic in the kid's eyes, but he settled down rather nicely. "I guess so. I'm kind of out with my... my...."

"'Girlfriend'. I noticed."

"You did?"

"Oh, yes, I did... Mister Morisato," Gauron murmured, his fake 'friendly' smile turning predatory as he leaned in towards the younger man. "I, and my employers, have noticed a lot about you."

"You.... You know who I am. Who are you?"

"Not anyone that you need to know, other than that we're going to have a nice talk, you and I."

"Why would we do that?" Morisato asked, pulling away from the bulky man.

Smirking, Gauron grabbed the Japanese man's arm. "Who said that you'd have a choice?"

"You can't just do what you want!"

"Oh, but I can. And I want to find out about all those wonderful toys that your bosses have waiting in that base of theirs. You see, my employers would like to have their pick of that stuff, and you're the key to that. Or just a stepping stone. I don't really care what happens to you, so long as you give me all that you can."

"And if I don't?"

"Then you will really regret that choice, now won't you?" the mercenary asked rhetorically, tightening his grip so much that tears started to spill from the corners of Morisato's eyes.

"Don't you hurt Keiichi!" cried out another voice, this one feminine and beautiful, even in anger.

Recognizing the speaker as the short guy's girlfriend, the tall man turned to face the obviously furious young woman... who was currently gathering some sort of energy in her cupped hands.

"Oh, hell," was all that Gauron could think to mutter as a force slammed into his gut so hard that he went flying backwards, losing his grip on his target, and recognizing that things had just gotten rather screwed up again.

And as he crashed into a wall hard enough to both knock him senseless, and crater the surface, he wondered if this was a sign of regular future 'woman trouble.'

* * *

Sergeant Hiroko Natsumura was a mechanic, and a pretty darn good one in her own opinion. She'd been with the Japanese Self Defense Force Reserves for over thirty years now, and found the time spent doing those activities a welcome break from being an aging Office Lady. Unlike her work at the Toyoma Sewing Machine Company, she got a fair amount of respect in the JSDF.

She was short, somewhat squat, and had a few brief affairs that never went anywhere because she didn't handle the 'demure little flower' act terribly well.

There was a comfortable routine to her life now, with no surprises or changes she could see coming.

At this very moment, for example, she was having a little bento that she'd prepared earlier. A cup of herbal tea (she cut back on her caffeine after the initial morning three cups of o-cha to avoid getting jittery) while she lunched and watched the planes she loved taking off and landing a few runway lengths away.

_BOOM!_

The quietly sipped cup of herbal tea dropped from her fingers as a large overweight man leapt down from a rooftop, losing a rifle in the process, landed heavily and began to run.

Hiroko Natsumura blinked.

A FLYING girl soared up over that building, except that one arm looked to be some sort of cannon which had blue fire spurting from the business end?!

_BOOM!_ went another explosion as a section of pavement came apart.

A little bit of rice dropped from Hiroko's chopsticks.

A boy (in a hospital gown) and a girl (in a cheerleader costume but carrying a polearm) leapt into the air from the building the other two had come from.

Watching the chase going on as it rounded a building, Hiroko wondered what had happened to her nice quiet routine.

* * *

"Yes, ah, that's nice. I'll be by in a few hours," said Setsuna, flipping her cellphone closed.

"Who was that?" asked Michiru.

"I just won a betting pool," said Setsuna with a mysterious smile.

"Getting back to the menace at hand," prompted Haruka.

"Ah yes." Setsuna considered carefully. "There are several active menaces on Earth that I know of, though details are sketchy at best. Some of our allies are... not completely trustworthy."

"In league with the forces of darkness?" asked Haruka, her tone indicating she was half-joking.

"Not so much that sort of thing," said Setsuna. "More that they will act in what they perceive as their own best interests, which will often overlap with our own but sometimes diverge. As an example, there is a Colonel Maybourne in the American military. A scoundrel who has been into 'black ops' for many years. From what I've overheard, he is playing factions against each other and has been pulling strings in the shadows for as long."

"Bad guy?" asked Haruka.

"Sometimes," said Setsuna. "Not as much as one might expect. Now THIS" _click click_ "was where I first encountered Colonel Maybourne."

"Power Armor?!" said Haruka, a note of envy entering her voice. "Where is this?"

"The assault on a base of a major menace named Beryl, you might just remember her," said Setsuna.

"She's still around?" said a frowning Michiru.

"Oh no," said Setsuna. "She was quite adequately removed." _click-click_ went the on-screen slideshow. "A massive assault that coordinated efforts from MITHRIL, the United States Armed Forces, the Sailor Senshi, and the JSDF."

"Overkill," stated Michiru.

"'It's only overkill if there's civilians or friendly forces in the blast radius,'" quoted Haruka from some obscure source.

"There was neither present," said Setsuna. "There were side effects though."

"Being together in an organized assault against a common enemy would likely cause many of those present to view each other as comrades," said Michiru.

Setsuna shifted her position a little on her chair, trying to get a kink out. "That just touches bases briefly, but my reason for visiting was to let you know about THIS."_click-click_

"That's... nice," said Haruka. She certainly wasn't one to make statements derogatory about big guns.

"It's under construction," said Michiru.

"We expect one of the Goa'uld to attack any day now," said Setsuna. "When that time comes, all I ask is that you put aside whatever differences you may have with the various allies and fight alongside them."

* * *

"So who is he?" asked General Hammond.

"Name is 'Gauron' - not his real name, more a reference to his being considered a citizen of nine different countries," explained Harriman, glancing in the little window into the hospital room. "According to the military net, he's a mercenary. Hires on to various groups, but the bodycount is as important to him as the money. Terrorist. Nobody's quite sure if he's Japanese or Asian though there is some indication he's Cambodian."

"He's in a body cast, and shackled," noted General Hammond. "That dangerous?"

"Apparently he's been 'killed' seven times," said Harriman. "Including once by Sergeant Sosuke Sagara - one of the JSDF forces who fought alongside us in that little Arctic operation."

"Ah," said the General, knowing that meant the assault on Beryl's base. "He's not an alien or have a symbiote?"

"No," said Harriman. "No supernatural abilities shown and tests negative for Goa'uld parasite. Unusually high healing factor, but not outside human limitations."

"Do we have any idea why he attacked Mister Morisato?" asked General Hammond.

"Not yet," said Harriman. "Refuses to talk."

"Keep someone on it," said General Hammond. "I'll need you back at the SGC."

"Something up?" asked Harriman.

"SG-1 just came back from one site where everything seemed perfectly normal but their medical scanners gave some bizarre results," said General Hammond. "We're sending scientific teams in more detail since all three scanners gave identical results."

"Oh? SG-1 isn't investigating?"

"No, the next world they're scheduled to visit is P3R-233," said the General.

* * *

Gauron smiled under his bandages.

Agents of one of his organizations had already infiltrated this hospital, and a listening device in the hallway outside his room had proven far more useful than he'd thought it would be.

This was going to be very interesting indeed.

* * *

He was a cop. He was a damn good one in many people's opinions. He was a husband and father as well and considered that his most important job, though he was quite dedicated as a police officer too.

He knew damn well there were things going on that did not at all fit with this situation. The attempted assault had been well documented. However the security footage available didn't show what happened after that woman had returned to see her boyfriend getting assaulted.

The patrons of the restaurant close enough to see it were giving odd stories, and then military police had come in and sewn everything up. Now the lawyers were going on between the two, but the result had been this particular perp was being guarded by military police with an outer layer of city police, a few federal agents, and (after a visit to Mister Gauron's room at the Best Western) ATF agents.

No details were being given out but he'd heard enough to know that the prisoner was some kind of international terrorist, and considered to be Heap Big Dangerous.

So why was Tall Dark & Nasty after a technician for NORAD?

There was SOMETHING going on that wasn't right. If his instincts were right, there was a LOT of somethings that were going on and about to hit the fan in HIS city. Hell, he'd just come down here with his family from his previous posting in Detroit. Colorado Springs was HIS city now though. It was certainly a lot better a place to raise a family.

Not that he had anything against the military. He understood one of his neighbors had a grandfather who was a General up in that mountain. His daughter was playing with their daughters regularly.

Still, if something was going on that was illegal - and it threatened to spill over into the city like those explosions the other night - he needed to keep investigating. Especially after having seen that prisoner. The guy practically radiated Sociopath.

He'd figure out what was going on, or his name wasn't Alex J. Murphy.

* * *

Rubbing at her eyes, Kaname began to wonder if she'd been dropped into some sort of strange alternate dimension, like on one of those science fiction shows. She could understand the concept that bad guys were around, and that they might want her for reasons that she was still unclear on. After all, her father did work for the UN. But the fact that there were strange people with powers beyond human norms, herself included, wasn't what made her wonder about which world she was in. Rather, her reason for doubting where she was came from the amount of damage that these new people in her life were willing to do to the scenery around them.

Eyeing the big hole where there had once been a window, she blew out a breath and scowled. "Don't those guys know anything about actually thinking before blowing things up?"

"Sometimes it is important to act before thinking, so that your opponent doesn't get the chance to act before you do," Sosuke murmured from his position near the enlarged opening. "In fact, I really should move now, and assist with...."

"Not a chance, moron. The only place that you are going is back to bed. Really, have you even _thought_ about how injured you are?" the blue haired girl grumbled as she caught the teenaged soldier by his ear and dragged him over to his bed.

"There is a threat currently out and posing a risk on the base."

"Which is being very ably dealt with by the girl with the cannon arm, and the two who thought it best to go running after them. On the other hand, you are going to rest and recover."

"I have taken more damage than this before."

"And that is... pretty scary to know, but it isn't going to change my mind."

"I have orders to follow," Sosuke replied, giving her an insistent look, even as she pulled the covers up over his chest.

"Then take my orders. Stay there, and shut up. Now."

"You can actually manage to handle him," drawled a voice from the only other bed currently occupied.

"I wouldn't say _that_."

"I would. When he was around me, the idiot couldn't manage to keep himself under control."

"Hold on a second," Kaname responded, blinking slightly as she did so. "You dealt with him before?"

"He used to be my guard. And now, he's your headache, from what I'm hearing. You... You're that girl!"

"Eh?"

The brunette on the bed leaned herself up on her elbows and gave the other girl a serious look. "You look just like that 'ghost girl' that I spoke to at the school. She told me all about what those creeps were going to do to the girls there...."

"I didn't talk to many people there that would be here. About the only one that I did say something to was a girl in a red version of what that other girl was... that was you?"

"That's what I'm telling you."

"Then you and that other girl are related somehow? Is there some sort of special club of girls who can blow things up?"

"We don't blow things up!" the injured girl protested, but then looked away. "At least, not usually. And not on purpose."

"Then what...."

"We're called the 'Sailor Senshi'."

"You mean those stories from Juuban are _real_? And you're one of them?"

Smiling, the girl in the hospital gown nodded. "Rei Hino. Also known as 'Sailor Mars'."

"And that girl was...."

"'Sailor Saturn'. From what I know of her, she seems to be normally a bit quieter...."

"Ah. Well, the other girl was the one who did the 'blasting' thing. Still, it's all a bit much to take in. Until recently, I thought that the biggest problem that I'd have was dealing with this idiot," Kaname admitted, jerking a thumb at the sole boy in the room.

"Don't I know it," Rei agreed, giving a small snort. "He does tend to go overboard on everything, doesn't he?"

"He thinks that blowing up his shoe locker is a good idea when faced with someone putting a letter into it. And it was a love letter at that."

"I can imagine it. Though, I do have to admit that there is worse out there. There was one guy that they sent to watch us who should not be around any girls at all. I mean, if the jerk wasn't flirting with us, he was chasing after every girl who came to buy a fortune at my shrine."

That got an understanding look from the blue haired girl. "I know what you mean. Why, there's been this guy who's been watching over me ever since that... attack at my school, and he's _such_ a pervert. If I didn't think that it'd be impossible, I'd swear that he's turned on by everything in a skirt, what with how he's hit on ever girl that we've passed."

"Sounds like you've had to go through the same thing that I have. It is pretty hard to go through having someone whistle with approval when you're buying lingerie, or something like that. All with a twinkle in those blue eyes of his."

"True. And I actually met the jerk earlier, and didn't know that he was a soldier. If I had, then I'd have been even _more_ disgusted by the sight of a blond man coming on to schoolgirls out of the blue, when they were doing nothing but eating at a restaurant...."

"He probably would have.... Wait. 'Soldier'? 'Blond'?"

"'Blue eyes'?"

"Kurz Weber!" yelped both girls, as their eyes grew wide, and their mouths dropped open in disgusted shock.

* * *

"You really should get that checked out," Melissa Mao murmured as she glanced over at the young man standing next to her.

Kurz wiped at his nose and grinned. "I didn't know that you cared that much about me, my dear...."

"I don't. It's just that the paperwork to request a temporary replacement for you if you fall ill is a bitch to fill out. I'd much rather not have to deal with the aggravation."

"Ah, but what would you do without me?"

"Probably worry less about the young female recruits."

"You wound me, you know that?" the blonde man mock-accused the other soldier. "I mean, I'm not all that bad. And, besides, it might not be some sort of bad cold. You know what they say is happening if you sneeze out of the blue like that. Someone is probably talking about you."

"Who would want to talk about you?"

"Probably one of my many admirers...."

* * *

The room was a place where many people could eat, but unlike a restaurant where explanations would have to be given, the mess hall could be closed without telling anyone the specific reason for it. If someone were to question as to why the military would want to shut up one of its facilities for a few hours, then there were plenty of individuals in nicely pressed uniforms all ready to give vague and unrevealing answers. And if that questioner came from a military unit, it was quite easy to send that person off to another duty, and even to another posting.

Still, Kaname found it to be fairly... odd to be in such a place, and not have lots of noise around her. She'd been in more than one cafeteria in her lifetime, and she didn't feel quite at ease without the sound of voices in conversation, clanking dishes, and other activity. Not that she was looking to force anyone to open the place for business, given what was going on.

"Here we are," Rei said from her wheelchair, waving a hand at the small group that had been waiting for them. "My friends, and other guests."

"You _are_ okay, aren't you, Rei-chan?" asked a girl with the oddest hairstyle.

"I'm fine, Usagi."

"But the chair...."

"Is only because I hurt my leg, and the doctors don't want me to walk on it yet."

"Oh...."

"Friend of yours?" Kaname asked, raising a brow at Rei.

"You can call her that. She's 'Sailor Moon'."

"I see...."

"Then there's Sailor Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter. Ami, Minako, and Makoto. And over there is Saturn, Hotaru Tomoe, and Ranma Saotome."

"The girl I saw kissing her boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend," the Senshi of Saturn blurted, and then looked embarrassed. "Well, not right now, he isn't. And it isn't like I don't want him to be that for me. I'd really like for him to be my boyfriend...."

Ranma merely sat still and looked a bit overwhelmed by what was going on.

"Like I said," Kaname drawled.

"I wish that I had a guy here," 'Venus' pouted. "Not that this isn't really cute, and nice to see."

"At least you gave them that, Mina-chan," Ami softly commented, wincing slightly as she did so.

"You think so? I was just trying to be true." "What about that guy that.... The one," Makoto began, and then looked down. "The one that I zapped."

A dawn of realization appeared on Kaname's face. "Oh, so _you_ did that."

"You're mad, aren't you?"

"Not really."

"But I hit someone you know with a attack, like he was an enemy."

"I never said that I wasn't annoyed, what with you not paying that much attention. But the idiot is fine, and I'm sure that you didn't mean it. You didn't mean to blast him, did you?"

The idea clearly horrified the green eyed girl. "No, of course not!"

"Then, that's good. What about you?" Kaname asked, glancing at the youngest Senshi. "Going to run off with your boyfriend again?"

"Not right now...." Hotaru murmured, blushing brightly and fidgeting as she recognized what she said.

"Good to know. And who is she? I know that we met earlier, but it wasn't long enough for introductions."

"This is KOS-MOS," Ranma managed to get out. "She's... different."

"Thank you for that... rather obvious comment. You did tell me her name though. Nice to meet you, KOS-MOS."

Red eyes focused on the girl with the long blue hair. "Understood."

"Okay.... You're not looking to blast any more windows, now are you?"

"There are no threats detected on my sensors at this time. No such action is necessary."

Kaname gave a weak smile and laugh as she tried to figure out what to make of the rather stiff girl.

* * *

The ship hung there in space, an insignificant bit of junk just on the other side of Earth's moon. It listened and analyzed and tried to make sense of the various EM broadcasts.

"So many languages," said one Jaffa. "So much anger and hate directed at each other. This will be easier than stirring up a grak nest."

"Mighty Heru'ur wants us to pinpoint the leaders of this world so that his vengeance might be swift," said another Jaffa, referring to their latest communication. "The only problem is - they don't actually seem to have any."

"Rather say they have too many. These Tau'ri are insane," said the third. "Look at this."

The three watched for a time, trying to make sense of the video broadcast.

"I don't get it," said the first Jaffa.

"The females are inticing enough, but that male seems to... what is this?"

* * *

"This is Sheila McDonnagal, BBC News. There are many strange things that have come out of Liverpool. This is one of the strangest yet - a small manufacturing company has begun constructing a yellow submarine in one of their bays."

"It's an outrage," said some chubby woman. "I've always shown up - mostly on time, and now they've taken my office up for building this damn thing and fired me!"

"When we contacted the business, Adamantine, for details," said the reporter, "they stated that they have gotten a government contract and anyone not signing the forms and passing lie detector screening is being let go. The yellow submarine, a prototype with a name and design similar to the one in the old Beatles' film, is to be used for deep sea exploration and excavations."

* * *

"That's a scoutship," said the first Jaffa. "I have no idea what they're talking about - but THAT is a scoutship of some kind."

* * *

"-following this, there have been picketers who protest trying to exploit the oceans," said the BBC reporter.

"They've raped the land, now they're going after the sea, we won't have it!" said a sign-toting protester.

* * *

"Blowing them up is too good for them," said the second Jaffa. His symbiote protected him from having physical ailments, but he could swear these Tau'ri were nothing but a headache.

* * *

"Where is this?" asked Sailor Mars.

"Secret underground dockyards," said the soldier.

"Why are we being relocated here again?" asked Sailor Mars.

"Because this is a safe location, secure, and nobody's likely to take your picture with a cellphone camera here," said the soldier. "Ah. Captain!"

Sailor Mars looked around briefly for the captain. It was a moment or two before she realized the young girl in the uniform was apparently the captain. "HER?!"

"Hi. Sailor Mars, isn't it?" asked the young girl. "I met everyone else during that little assault on the Dark Kingdom access point."

"Captain Teletha 'Tessa' Testarossa," said KOS-MOS.

"I'll take over from here," said Tessa to the soldier. "Let's get you situated, shall we? The ship's still being put together but the infirmary area is finished."

"Ship?" asked Sailor Mars as they headed towards some golfcart that had a trailer.

"Yes, and we... soldier?"

"Ma'am," said the soldier. "Are you SURE you're going to drive. You remember what happened the last time."

"Oh, right," said Tessa. "I'm sure it will be fine."

* * *

Setsuna Meiou, aka Sailor Pluto, alias Lieutenant Susan Mayo JSDF liason, tried not to smirk in amusement nor grimace in annoyance.

People were working frantically to complete ships in mostly top secret locations. At any moment the Goa'uld were going to attack, attack hard, and either destroy or conquer every nation on Earth. That was one heck of a motivation. This was complicated by two factors.

One, and it was one that Setsuna had observed before, was the primate pack reaction. Surprise a pack of primates, say chimpanzees with a stimulus they'd never had before like a gunshot nearby, and the group would break into a number of reactions. Some would screech and go to threatening postures. Some would run. Others would freeze. Still others would weave from side to side, chattering. So on and so forth. A survivor trait, as some of the group would pick the right reaction and survive to pass on their genes.

It was annoying as hell when humans did the same thing.

The reason for keeping the looming doom quiet was quite simple. People would panic. There would be resulting economic crashes, rioting worse even than at some soccer matches, people would start blaming the news for anything from a lost cricket match to 'new tensions' between any number of existing groups, serious-sounding commentators would offer up various soundbites in the hopes that something would increase their ratings, and so on and so forth. The news that not only was there a Someone Out There but they were coming with hostile intent would shift all sorts of worldviews and be a right royal mess.

Since the supply lines were moving right along without major problems or holdups, it was in everyone's best interest not to broadcast the information.

So she looked at the _Yellow Submarine_, actually a four-man exploratory spaceship being constructed by one of MITHRIL's branches. She looked at the massive _Tuatha De Danaan_, which was a little over 200 meters long, and nodded with some approval.

She walked by the Armslaves, the beetle-like "giant robots" that had initially not been made for combat - but for construction. The initial designs had been thrown out by those robot doggies from the BOLO, with voice activation and 'reflex systems' so that people with minimal training could operate them. Naturally, every region that had them rushed out the initial units and followed up with regional 'upgrades' they'd come up with after the current emergency was done.

Stepping from the shadows of an undersea base off of Japan, she briefly reappeared in another base.

There she watched as a decrepit ship that had become a 'tour site' and then closed for 'structural repairs' was quietly refitted for a more active role.

Japan, England, Scotland, Germany, Australia, South Korea, Ireland, Pearl Harbor, Norfolk, Liverpool - each was visited in turn. Each was left alone before security forces could notice one of the shadows was occupied.

She raised an eyebrow at some of the goings-on, but was more bemused than anything else. The Senshi could certainly handle the average magical menaces that came in their sentai villainry fashion. Someone parking a cruiser thirty planetary diameters away and launching missiles - another thing altogether.

Then she beheld something being built at Groom Lake and teleported away before she could laugh about it.

* * *

"WHAT IS THIS?!" asked a General, stabbing a finger down at a photograph.

"A very top secret project, General," said Colonel Maybourne.

"Why wasn't I informed?" growled the General.

"As I said, VERY top secret," said Colonel Maybourne. "I'm not even allowed to tell myself about it."

The General glared some more, shifting the cigar in his mouth, as he considered plans of attack. "So what IS Shiva?"

"Not allowed to say," said Colonel Maybourne. "Have you seen our SAMAS? They look to be quite useful."

"Never mind about the power armor," said the General. "What of this tank?"

"I am not at liberty to say," said Colonel Maybourne.

"What about this gun?" asked the General.

"It looks like a railgun meant to fire a carbon-coated depleted uranium javelin about 0.3c," offered Colonel Maybourne.

The General stared.

"Not that we have such a thing," said Colonel Maybourne. "This is just a CGI concept photo."

"What?!" exclaimed the General.

Selective Howitzer Interface Vehicular Artillery was the actual name, simply because the sucker could load one of several shell-types with the DU rounds being standard. It was a nice design though. Looked suitably menacing and the little itty bitty trucks next to it gave a nice sense of scale.

Pity it was just something that one of the technicians had worked out to test his CAD program. Then appropriated to use for trying to find a leak.

* * *

"You know," said Kaname, "I think I'm handling all this really well."

"Oh?" said Teletha.

"Yeah," said Kaname. "A few weeks ago, I had no idea about any of this stuff. Now look at where I am."

"In a secret undersea temporary construction facility with a pair of Sailor Senshi, a mercenary soldier with no common sense, a psychic teenage captain of a submarine-dash-spaceship, an alien robot-girl, and a warrior-ninja?" asked some tanned soldier with really long hair as the group filed past her.

Kaname blinked a couple of times before looking at KOS-MOS. "Oh. That explains what I was feeling from you."

"Telemechanics," said Teletha. "So, we've got androids and psychics and aliens and ninja."

"I ain't a ninja, I just know ninja-stuff," grumbled Ranma mostly under his voice.

"All we need are some..." Kaname's voice trailed off as she looked to the side. "Okay. Put a checkmark next to the giant robots."

"They're very handy for large scale construction," indicated Teletha happily.

"Uh huh," said Kaname. "I'm going to scream if there are time travelers involved."

The woman soldier with the tan and long hair seemed to find this inordinately amusing for some reason.

"Or catgirls," said Kaname, wondering if she should be worried about the soldier's snort of amusement.

"Well, we're pretty sure that the attack on the school involved a secret international conspiracy," pointed out Teletha. "Is that close enough?"

* * *

Simply standing outside what was to be his home and savoring the ability to take a deep lungful of air wasn't something that Genma had ever really thought would be something that he'd enjoy, but that was currently the case. Truth be told, he'd always wanted a simple life where he could live out the remainder of his days just being a 'wise old master' that people sought out for bits of help. When he'd made his arrangement with the Professor, he hadn't thought much about the place, but had always been certain that his grandchildren would be showing off their skills for him as he watched with a pleased eye.

Being on an alien world during what amounted to a cold war between the Earth and a hostile extraterrestrial race wasn't exactly his dream life.

Still, it was turning out to be somewhat satisfying, and he did have to admit that it gave him a lot of things to appreciate. He was going to have his own dojo, and even if it was going to not be the most modern or luxurious thing around, he did have to admit that he liked the idea of his legacy being there for all to see. There were some things that he didn't like, but he also knew that he couldn't change them, and he could only hope that they weren't true.

"Teacher!" called out a voice that took him a moment to place.

He did recognize it though, and he turned to look at the long limbed young woman with a bemused expression. Korri was certainly a... healthy young woman, with many a soldier coughing as they caught themselves staring. Not that she took note of that, as she continued to run and... bounce without bothering with the modesty that a lot of women traditionally held to. However, she also was quite capable of handling any unwanted advances on her own.

As one gunnery sergent pointed out, if some system lord had wanted to have a guard who could be as lethal as she was decorative, that Jaffa girl was certainly it.

Of course, Genma didn't have any desire to betray his wife, even in his imagination, especially with a mere teen, or at this time in his life. "Yes? What is it?"

"We have just gotten word from Earth, sir," she panted, sliding to a stop, and leaning down as she tried to get her breath back. "We thought that it was important that you know as soon as we could."

"Is that so? What could _I_ need to know?"

"There was a fight a military base where you come from."

"Really? That sounds interesting, but...."

"That's just it. From what they told us, it was a major clash where two great fighters destroyed many buildings!"

"I see," the martial artist murmured, stroking his chin. "Perhaps one of them could help teach here."

"Actually...."

"What?"

The Jaffa girl shrugged a bit, looking uncertain as to how to continue. "It seems that one warrior... absorbed her enemy into herself at the end of it all."

"'Absorbed'?"

"Exactly! And...."

"This is what I should know?"

"It's why I had to run here. They came from what the Tau'ri call a 'rift'... along with your son. The warrior known as 'Ranma' is not only alive, but is supposed to be stronger." Whatever Korri had expected as a reaction from the much respected teacher of the fighting arts, it had not been... laughter, but that was what she got as the man tilted his head back and gave of a deep chested chuckle. "This is... amusing?"

"No, this is me being pleased."

"I... see...."

"Trust me, you can understand it later. Right now, I have things to do."

"Then you head off to see your son now?"

"No, I go to my sleeping quarters."

"You wish to... nap, rather than seeing your child?" she asked, her brow furrowing in confusion.

"No, I go to change my clothes. Can't be wearing this when I go to see that disobedient son of mine...."

Korri didn't particularly understand his reasoning for not being satisfied with the black outfit that he was wearing, but put it down to some Tau'ri social concern that she didn't understand yet.

* * *

Daniel Jackson knew that he had gone through a great many things that had changed him in ways that he didn't even recognize himself. Only recently, he wouldn't have been able to shoot a gun with confidence, hadn't exactly been thrilling anyone with his theories, and barely had any success since he'd gone public. But now he was the 'go to' guy for 'decoding' the cultures that they came across, and was seen as an authority in one of the most important projects known to Earth's humanity. He'd grown stronger, learned new skills, and was making the sort of discoveries that an archeologist could normally only dream of. Added to the amazing things that had come from the use of the Stargate, including his marriage, and the association with the BOLO, and he had to admit that things were going quite well for him.

Yet, as he had walked from the Stargate into the darkened room that was all that he could see of P3R-233, he had to admit that he was still like a child at heart. In a room full of artifacts from a variety of cultures, he could sit there and catalog it all for weeks and be content. Sure, filming it helped, but he really wanted to get to the work of discovering just where all of these wonderful things had come from.

Why, just looking around, he saw things like this big, oddly shaped mirror with what looked like rocks around the edges that just 'screamed' that they had secrets that he had to find out.

Feeling like a kid in a candy store, he gave a small smile, and glanced over at where Carter was standing.


	26. Chapter 26: Allies and Alternates

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: all rights, copyrights, dittorights, implied rights, etcetera are owned by the original owners of such. Even if they are altered significantly, they'll be returned at the end of shooting before you know it.

Chapter 26: Allies and Alternates

* * *

"Okay, so we know from prominence in their news broadcasts that these are world leaders," said the first Jaffa. "The ones they worship despite their clever disinformation campaign."

"Right," said the second Jaffa. "We were almost taken in by their deception."

It was a problem for the Jaffa in that they normally fought other Jaffa. There were expeditions to conquer new territory every so often, but those heathens fell easily and the inter-god wars were the ones that really got memorable. The infighting amongst the System Lords was as bad as it had ever been before Ra, and they tended to view things from that paradigm. They were ruled directly by their god, and their god was immortal though changed bodies every so often. Their gods were intelligent and powerful and fond of all sorts of labyrinthine manipulations.

Which was why the Jaffa had selected the target that they had, and were preparing a strike that would hit just as the main force was ready to appear. With their god-ruler slain, the humans would fall into despair and panic - which would be a perfect time for the fleet to arrive.

Clever these Tau'ri, that they didn't even know their conquerer was watching them and they had no apparent space travel. Yet they'd still hidden away that their REAL god-rulers were not these apparent ones, but these others whom their 'press' fawned over.

The leading Jaffa sneered as he looked on the video footage. Soon enough, she would die for the glory of Heru'ur.

* * *

Princess Diamond cleared her throat twice, then finally just went ahead and spoke. "uhm. excuse me?"

The one she was addressing, who looked to be a computer geek from Japan despite being born and raised locally (though educated in Japan), blinked a few times as he turned from his computer screen to the princess. It was almost as if he'd buried himself in the task at hand to such a degree that he had to readjust to reality at large. Which was the case, actually.

"Why are those dogs praying?" asked the Princess.

The geek blinked again and looked towards the dogs who were sitting in a circle with their heads bowed. "Uhm. Those dogs aren't really dogs you know."

"Yes, I know. They're robot doggies," said the Princess patiently. "Robot doggies from some mysterious ally of the Americans who in turn are OUR allies. At least in battles involving alien space worms. Why are they praying?"

"They're not," said the geek. "They're directing nanites."

"Nan whats?" asked the Princess.

"Itty bitty machines that are reinforcing the hull," said the geek.

"How much of all this do you actually understand?" asked the Princess.

"A bit," admitted the geek. "Some of it is way beyond what we can understand with current Earth technology."

"So we have 'good aliens' and 'bad aliens,'" mused the Princess. "What next, giant robots?"

The geek decided not to tell her. Not yet at least.

* * *

He put his palm on the scanner, then his eye to THAT scanner, then licked his lips before identifying himself. "Cherenkov, Vladimir. Section 11."

The voiceprint analysis went over the data, decided that it was within parameters, and passed him.

Vladimir frowned slightly after going through the door. Once his voice had caught from dryness and he'd had commando teams swarming over him before he could have said 'Idiot Security System' or offered an excuse.

"And so how are you doing today?" asked Vladimir as he walked into the room where the plexiglass wall offered a nice view of the yoma.

"These rats and rabbits provide enough life-energy to survive," said the yoma, "but there is a difference between surviving and living."

"Any Russian citizen might well agree with you," said Vladimir with a shrug. "We are still trying to get you a political prisoner or two, but it is not as easy as you might think."

"So what is it today?" asked the yoma.

Vladimir nodded. "To business. Yes, direct is good. I have brought a few photographs. Perhaps you might recognize something in them?"

The yoma let out a long hiss that spoke more of weary acceptance than protest. The mail slot delivered a few photos where it could sort through them, stopping at one. "THESE I recognize."

"Some sort of cheerleaders? I like their skirts," said Vladimir. "Too young for my tastes though."

"They didn't tell you where these were taken, or who any of these are?" asked the yoma.

"No, pretty much standard 'mushroom treatment'," admitted Vladimir, settling into a chair from which he could speak to the guest. "They keep me in the dark, and those few details handed to me are not always truthful."

The yoma considered the human who was only a few feet away, then nodded. "This was one I heard of. One who is the greatest danger to your planet I have yet encountered. She is the one called Sailor Moon."

Vladimir nodded, aware that this was all being recorded. He also wondered how much of this had any basis in reality. He was quite aware that his superiors were not the only ones trying to feed him information that smelled of excrement.

* * *

"We've got parts coming in from three worlds, supplies from a fourth, and nanite containers that those robot dogs can manipulate from that moon," said Colonel Maybourne. "They're running the Stargate almost 24/7 right now."

"Almost? Why not?" asked his visitor.

"Engineering and software limitations," said Colonel Maybourne, lifting his hands as if to indicate how powerless he was in this matter.

"Overcome such things then," grumped the visitor. "Get that damn talking tank to contribute!"

"Congressman," said Maybourne. "Do you have any idea how many research projects we have going on? How much cooperation we're getting from the BOLO?"

"Errr," said the congressman, not used to this sort of reaction.

"I'll tell you, right now, we're maxed out. We're trying to back-engineer HUNDREDS of tweaks and applications of technology. Materials technology, energy technology, nanotechnology, chemistry, quantronics-" began Maybourne. "And no - we can't shift things around. Everyone we don't have on research is putting things together for an attack we KNOW is coming at any day."

"Maybe not," began the congressman.

"No, it IS," said Maybourne. "One misstep. ONE. We may end up fighting alone. Alone - we lose. Look at this."

"It's a deck of cards?" asked the congressman, catching the yellow box from the Colonel.

"No, not at all." Colonel Maybourne said. "It's something that the BOLO wanted General Hammond to have. A little present. Apparently our BOLO feels curiosity itself and worked this out in an experiment. It's a warhead."

"This small?" asked the congressman, now holding the box at arm's length.

"Do you know what a 'buckyball' is?" asked Maybourne. "Apparently anything you put inside one is suspended and a particle can be held within each buckyball. Each particle in that is an antiproton. So that's about twenty-two ounces of antimatter in your hand."

The visiting congressman looked puzzled, apparently not understanding what the big deal was about a box that weighed maybe two or three pounds at most.

"I believe my colleague Colonel O'Neill referred to it as a 'BIG boomie'," said Maybourne. "We can barely understand how it works much less manufacture it. Do we really want to antagonize a friend who brings us such wonderful gifts?"

* * *

"Sir, you wanted to see me?"

General Hammond returned the salute. "You have some unique qualifications, Captain."

"Commander, sir," corrected the woman.

"You were a Commander, now you're a Captain," said General Hammond.

"Of what? The Iowa is decommissioned," said the new Captain. "I was a little surprised to see her here."

"True enough," said General Hammond, leading the new Captain onwards.

"Which 'unique qualifications' are you talking about?" asked the new Captain. "And why are there dogs praying on the deck?"

_CLANG CLANG CLANG_

"...power armor?!" asked the Captain, having a sudden feeling of utter unreality.

The General smiled, went past the Captain, and opened the door that the power armored soldier was standing in front of.

The Captain got two steps in before she came to a complete halt, momentarily distracted by the airlock-style hatch.

"This is Lieutenant Mamoru Chiba of the JSDF, acting as liason.," said General Hammond, sounding amused.

"Hajime mashite," said Captain Harrington, thinking this boy looked awfully darn young.

"He speaks English," said the General, taking the lead once again. "Mister Chiba here is working on a rotating schedule, so as to gain at least a passing familiarity with as many force types as possible."

"Yes sir," said the youth, inclining his head. "Last week was... interesting."

"You were with the Excalibur forces, weren't you?" asked the General as they went up a stairs and a hatch slid out of their way.

"Yes sir," said Lieutenant Chiba.

"You're a liason with the JSDF?" asked Captain Harrington.

"He's a liason with various special forces we're allied with," said the General. "You'll be briefed on the details a little later. Because of some of the special natures of this duty, you are being given the option of refusing the assignment."

Little details had been accumulating behind the Captain's eyes, and she was now reminded of an old quote of Sherlock Holmes. Once the possible had been eliminated, that just left the impossible. Too many things were just flat out wrong about this situation, and her dreams tended to make a lot more sense. Then there was what General Hammond had said about the Iowa.

"Pardon me sirs," said a technician in an odd uniform. "Coming through."

The three stopped as the technician scurried past, carrying a set of purple arm-length crystals.

"Naquadah reactor?" asked Lieutenant Chiba.

"Dual reactor," said the General. "We have to have a lot of power to run the weapons, shields, recharge the land-mates, space SAMAS, and so on."

"If I may ask, General?" asked Lieutenant Chiba. "Why are you here instead of at the SGC?"

"Ah, that would be the Captain's secondary duties," said General Hammond as they came to a last door and stopped outside it. "You're familiar with the new policy regarding recruitment."

Captain Harrington let out a deep breath. She knew that General Hammond was quite well known for his stance of recruiting women into the military, particularly the Air Force. "You want a 'spokesmodel' for the recruitment of women into the military."

"The Joint Chiefs approved of this," said General Hammond, "nor is 'spokesmodel' quite the correct term. It is because of that factor though that you can refuse this commission and simply go back to your former rank and unit. This is going to be a highly visible position and you'll have to endure some scrutiny from both military and nonmilitary sources when public knowledge occurs."

Captain Harrington went stoney-faced. She didn't care at all for the possibility of trying to get through press conferences. She was a soldier, period.

General Hammond palmed a plate, which laser-scanned his hand before it opened the door.

"Captain Harrington," said General Hammond as the Captain walked through and came to a complete stop on the other side. "Welcome to your command. The Space Battlecruiser _Iowa_."

* * *

"Status on Behemoth?"

"Behemoth is 80% complete at this point and will demonstrate our power to the world."

"Good. There is nothing on this world which can stop it."

"Agreed. The UDO project will not be necessary."

"I disagree on that point. If nothing else it makes good use of artifacts stolen from those fools at Groom Lake, and the knowledge of genetic engineering we develop from its use - well worth the effort."

* * *

It was a simple enough concept, as they knew what would truly bring the enemy to heel. If they were to take over, then it was best to be rid of the one who stood in absolute control of the place that they wanted to be in charge of. That meant that they'd kill that individual, possibly in the most demeaning way possible, and use the resulting disorganization to their advantage. And if their god was to allow the defeated ruler to continue to draw breath, it usually meant that the loser would then be forced to serve the victor for the rest of eternity.

That was the way that the Jaffa had fought for as long as their history, and they didn't see much reason to change that now.

However, there were some questions that did come up. "This one looks... young to be the god of this world."

"True, but who knows about the whims of the gods," scoffed the other Jaffa. "Besides, she may seem to be youthful, but remember that this may be merely the form taken by a very ancient god."

"I understand, though...."

"What?"

"Perhaps this god is feeble in mind, if this form is the best choice in her mind," drawled the first Jaffa, a smirk curving his mouth.

"You do have a point. A very good point."

"I believed that to be the case."

"And even if we were not convinced of the greatness of Heru'ur," the other Jaffa muttered, "the fact that this god's body looks either to be that of a stick figure, or of a top heavy trollop, depending on the style of recording, makes one wonder what that god was thinking."

"Perhaps that is something that we can ask when we finally take on this 'Paris Spears'."

* * *

Daniel Jackson hadn't wanted to leave, as he'd been in a place that had seemed to be _perfect_ for the sort of person that he was. Part of his interest in archeology had come from his desire to know about all the cultures of the world, and that included their history. He'd always felt that there was something to learn about each of them, and he was not only getting a chance to discover things about the ones that he'd come across before, but he was finding whole new ones all the time.

In this room there were artifacts from so many cultures that even he couldn't identify all of them at that moment. What he wanted to do was to enjoy finding out as much as he could of their stories, whatever they might be. Unfortunately, something had seemed to be wrong, and he'd found that he'd only been able to bring back what he'd be able to carry.

The problem with that was that it seemed that his teammates had left him behind when he'd gone to carry this one mirror. Not that he'd blamed them, as it didn't seem that he was about to be eaten or something, but he'd sort of liked the idea of them waiting for him. Still, he wasn't incapable of handling such a problem himself, and he acted.

Walking over to the Stargate, he tapped out the address for Earth with the ease that came from the familiarity that he now had with the DHD. All it took was a simple dial, and he was able to get the expected opening of the wormhole to come about without any difficulty. That only left one thing to do, and as he hadn't left behind anything that he'd brought with him, nor was he abandoning anything that hat he'd determined had some sort of major significance, he stepped through the Gate.

As he expected, the disorientation of suddenly appearing in one place so different from where he'd been overtook him, but as his boot heels made their usual impacts onto the metal of the ramp in the Gate room, he got his bearings soon enough. Turning around, he saw the iris close, and gave a wry smile at the lost opportunity to get interesting items on this trip. But since he did think that it was possible that he could go back again, he merely shrugged, and went to turn away from the Gate.

It wasn't all that normal to have the soldiers pointing their guns at him like he was some sort of intruder though.

"This... can't be good," he muttered.

* * *

Teletha Testarossa sat down in the command chair and seemed to change a little. Her eyes went to an unseeing stare and she slumped a little. "Interface complete. My left arm is a little numb."

"Where?" asked Andrei Kalinin.

"Left arm?" asked Mardukas.

"Sorry," said Teletha, her voice a little distant as her expression indicated concentration. She closed her eyes as she focussed on what only she could see. "I mean the port side. Feels like the connections to the artificial myomers in the adjustment fins there aren't shielded properly. Please check them."

Kalinin pushed a button on his wristwatch and spoke into it, relaying the information to the inspection team.

"Everything else feels okay," said Teletha as she continued through. "The last pieces of outer hull have been fitted and mol-welded."

"Very good," said Mardukas. It was perhaps a little odd that a young slip of a girl like this would be in command of a futuristic space-submarine like this - but she was not only the designer of it but able to slip her mind into the vessel and actually become the ship. Still, the girl-genius needed someone mature to watch over her and play 'mentor.'

Teletha's eyes opened briefly and she regarded Richard Mardukas with a frown before closing again and turning her attention back to the task at hand.

"Retract walkways and docking tubes," said Captain Testarossa. "Close all external hatches. Environment to full seal. Accessing... there's a black cat wandering around the torpedo bay - starboard forward. Please reunite her with the party in Sick Bay."

"I'll see to it," said Kalinin. "I've got to speak to them anyway."

* * *

Captain Honor Harrington was led to her cabin, where she was surprised by two things. One - that it boasted a workstation that still had open panels but otherwise looked as high tech as one might expect. The chair before it was on tracks so that it could be adjusted in a number of ways, but then she had noted similar things all over the ship. When she'd asked earlier, it was because there were still bugs in the artificial gravity system and everything that could be secured had a means for doing so.

The second was that there was a small dog apparently resting on a cushion.

"And whose doggie are you?" asked the Captain, wondering if this were from one of the construction people running all over the ship.

"Yours actually, Captain," said the dog, looking up at her with startling blue eyes. "I am Nimitz. I am your BOLO liason and technical advisor."

"Ah," said Captain Harrington, sitting down and considering the talking dog. "So you're... I suppose android isn't the correct term."

"It's close enough," admitted Nimitz. "I am an independent artificial intelligence K-9 unit. As the _Iowa_ is the flagship and prototype, it was agreed that a BOLO liason would be assigned to you - unless you have an objection?"

"No," said Captain Harrington. "Though I prefer cats myself."

"It is possible to change my body styling," admitted Nimitz. "Though only to a large cat. Perhaps a tiger or puma. It would take about two weeks though."

"I see," said the Captain, considering that briefly.

"There's an earbud on the desk," said Nimitz. "It will allow communication with myself within a considerable range - roughly equivelant to the range of one of your own ship-to-ship radio communications. Through me, you can relay communications to the ship in the event you are away from the ship. The 'wristwatch' style device next to it is a more obvious communications device - a two-way video transceiver. The crew have taken to calling them 'tracies' after some fictional character who utilized a similar device."

"That would be 'Dick Tracy'," said Captain Harrington.

"Yes, that was the indication," agreed Nimitz. "However I have been unable to obtain samples to verify."

"If you feel you must," said Captain Harrington. "It looks like these reports will take me some time to go through."

* * *

"Uhm, hello?" asked Daniel Jackson.

"Who are you and how did you get an SG-1 ID?" asked General Hammond.

"I'm Daniel Jackson, SG-1, General," said Daniel. "Come on, you know me."

"Yes he does," said a voice from the doorway.

"You're... me?" asked the seated Daniel.

"No, I'm me," said Daniel in the doorway.

"If you're me, then who am I?" asked Daniel.

"That's MY question," said General Hammond.

The seated Daniel looked puzzled. The standing Daniel looked puzzled.

"Okay, if you're me," said seated Daniel, "could something have happened with the Stargate to duplicate us?"

"Like in that Star Trek episode!" said Harriman, snapping his fingers. "This is the Good Daniel and this is the Bad Daniel."

"Why am I the Bad Daniel?" asked the seated Daniel.

"Because obviously I would be the good Daniel?" asked the standing Daniel, making it a question.

"The Stargates don't work that way," said Samantha Carter.

"You didn't let Minako get near it did you?" asked seated Daniel. "You remember what happened when you let her near a Goa'uld sarcophogus."

The various personnel all looked at each other.

"Who's 'Minako'?" asked Samantha Carter.

"You know, fourteen year old Japanese girl, bow in her hair, speaks English with a British accent," described Daniel. "Friends with Hotaru, drives Sam crazy on a regular basis."

More puzzled looks.

"We don't know a Minako," said Samantha Carter. "Or a 'Hotaru' for that matter. And if this was a trick of some sort, that seems an awfully odd thing for a Goa'uld to insert in their intell."

"I'm not a Goa'uld," said Daniel. "My wife is, but then she's in a holding cell. Unless Urd was finally convinced to get the parasite out and repair her immune system."

More silence, this time with a very intense look from Daniel II.

"I think we really need to talk," said standing Daniel.

"Putting aside that for the minute," said General Hammond.

"No," said standing Daniel with some intensity, "I REALLY want details on this."

"What about this device?" said General Hammond, holding up an odd box with a tube on one side and a small videoscreen. "Teal'c says that it isn't Goa'uld."

"It doesn't follow their design motif either," pointed out Sam. "Purely utilitarian."

"That's a medical scanner," said Daniel. "The scanner part is that little tube."

Sam undid the velcro, which further indicated not-Goa'uld origin, found the power switch and watched as the screen lit up. "Oh my..."

"Get Doctor Fraiser in here," said General Hammond, figuring a 'medical scanner' would be something she should check out.

"What about this?" asked Jack, picking one of the other questionable items up.

"Oh, that's one of the Silver Millenium objects I've been trying to identify," said seated Daniel. "It contains fragments of their writing, which bears a vague resemblence to ancient Greek which itself was probably influenced or inspired by the Silver Millenium writings."

"Can we get back to getting the parasite out of Sha're?" asked Daniel Jackson, tempting as it was to diverge into ancient Greece.

* * *

"Ship is moving, approaching Earth," said the scan operator.

"Plot its course," ordered the Commander, watching the screen.

"Plotting, if no deviation from course, it will land... North American continent. Coming in fairly slow though."

"One scoutship?" asked the Commander. "What is he planning?"

The lieutenant working at his computer gave off a puzzled sound. "Los Angeles? What the heck is in Los Angeles?"

"Not a military target," said the commander. "Maybe an infiltration team. Spying from up close."

"That may be it," agreed the lieutenant. "They've gotten all the information they can from lunar orbit, and now they're going to try physical observation."

* * *

"They've captured Gauron?" asked Sosuke from his new hospital bed. "Please relay my suggestion that they kill him quickly and as thoroughly as possible."

The aide, a MITHRIL employee who worked as a go-between, looked a little puzzled at that.

Andrei Kalinin nodded. "Yes. He's been killed before, so making sure that he's actually dead would be prudent."

"He's been crushed into a wall, he has several broken bones," said the aide.

"That might help to slow him down," said Sosuke.

"He's a prisoner though, so we can't actually do much to him," said the aide.

"Yeah," said Rei Hino, a little surprised at Sosuke's bloodthirstiness. "He's harmless at the moment."

"I found out how he infiltrated his personnel into the school," said Kalinin. "He captured the family of a maintenance worker there and used them as hostages. Afterwards he killed the hostages and the maintenance worker."

"In Afghanistan, the KGB once hired him to find a deserter from the Soviet army," said Sosuke. "When he was done, he had not only killed the deserter but everyone else in the village."

"Ah," said Rei.

"Gauron enjoys the act of killing," said Kalinin. "That his victims feel pain and terror before they die is something that pleases him. He's a sort of throwback to the sort of person who led Mongol hordes to sack cities. He's also the sort who employs situational ethics as far as his loyalty is concerned."

"I see," said Rei.

"No, I don't think you do," said Kalinin with a nod to the aide. "If you want a full report to give the Americans, I'll do so - but my recommendation is that they should execute Gauron immediately."

* * *

Normally, Daniel Jackson had little trouble with accepting a lot of things. He'd had to do a lot of that during his lifetime, as he hadn't exactly been an average boy growing up. Sure, he'd had plenty of the experiences that guys his age got to have, but the truth was that he'd also been through a lot of strange things in his life. And the fact was that he'd been long set apart from a lot of people before he'd ever been approached about the Stargate.

Still, it was a bit much to have himself watch himself eat.

"Oh boy," he sighed as he began to poke his fork into his ravioli.

Jack O'Neill leaned back and grinned sympathetically. "Not really into the whole 'cafeteria food' thing? Guess it's not like your mother made it, is it?"

"I wouldn't know. My mother died when I was too young to really know her, beyond the sort of thing that a kid sees."

"She did?"

"Big artifact she and my father were supervising the placement of fell on them."

"At the Metropolitan Museum of Art," the local Daniel murmured.

"Yes."

"Sorry about that," Jack muttered, and eyed his version of the archeologist thoughtfully. "Some people haven't exactly been open with their pasts."

"Well, it wasn't like Nick was ever any kind of replacement...."

"'Nick'?"

"My grandfather, Nick Ballard. He used to be a really dedicated archeologist. So much so that I never saw him. Grew up in foster homes."

"Where is he now?"

"Where he's been ever since he found that crystal skull," the displaced Daniel drily commented.

The other Jackson snorted. "In the asylum that he checked himself in to."

"Should we be worrying about a certain someone...." Jack suggested airily.

"Nick is the crazy one, not me."

"In any case, this isn't going to get us much of anything," Samantha Carter commented as she looked up from the files that she'd been examining. "I mean, other than confirming that you know things that happened in Daniel's life.... I mean our Daniel...."

"I get the idea. Though it looks like it's giving you a headache," the out of place archeologist commented idly.

"Oh?"

"Sam gets them all the time. Kind of happens a lot, actually."

Glancing over at the blonde, the local archeologist frowned. "Should we be worried about certain... things?"

"Not really. Pretty sure it's just stress."

"Funny, ours is pretty good with stress," O'Neill put in matter of factly.

Sam smiled just a bit and glanced at her commander. "Sir?"

"You did pretty well back when the two of us were stuck in Antarctica."

"I just did what I could. Panicking would exactly help."

"Especially with me being injured and all."

"Fortunately Daniel figured out the 'busy signal' concept quickly enough."

"It was just a stroke of luck," Daniel II said sheepishly, ducking his head just a bit.

"Do not demean what you did, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c lightly admonished. "Many would not have been able to accomplish such a feat."

"And not in time," Sam put in.

"Besides, I was starting to worry that I'd freeze off some... parts that are important to my manhood. So, thanks again, buddy," Jack said, sending a meaningful look towards his archeologist.

"You're welcome," Jackson II replied, and then shrugged. "But it was the only thing that I could think of doing. I couldn't leave you guys out there alone."

"Lucky for our Jack he could transform," Daniel I said to no one in particular.

"'Transform'?"

"Yeah. See, there was this sort of screw up with Hathor's sarcophagus, and.... Well, Jack wound up... as a girl," the out of place Daniel admitted as he speared a ravioli off his tray. "Was actually a rather pretty one too. It turns out that when he gets too much energy in him, he winds up turning into a 'she'. First happened when we tried to heal him, and then again when Sam tried to use the power source of the Antartic Gate to do it again so that he'd be healed."

This time the look that Jack gave Carter was full of a meaning that had her wincing in embarrassment.

"I still don't understand how you managed to get Sha're back, though," the local Daniel sighed.

"Well, she isn't _totally_ back," the displaced version of the archeologist admitted. "But the Asgard aren't exactly able to push aside the 'Protected Planets' treaty that they have with the System Lords. Kind of won't blow off the defense of those people just for us."

"Well, that just sucks. But.... Asgard? Alien guys, right?" Jack asked.

"Basically, yes. Nice guys too. They've done a lot to try and stretch the treaty, so...."

That had Daniel II leaning forward expectantly. "Did they help rescue Sha're?"

"Didn't need to. We sort of had a bit of help from another direction. You see, Hotaru called Ranma in, and those two can cause some real trouble. Not that they look like they should be able to."

"How much 'trouble' are we talking about?" Sam asked.

"Enough that the Jaffa willing to leave Chulak were doing so as quickly as possible. Those two brought just about everyone that they could, along with all sorts of gadgets. Which meant that our guys got all sorts of new toys, and Drey'auc and Rya'c got to live happily and free, along with the rest of the Jaffa."

Teal'c sent a level look towards the displaced archeologist. "Do you mean to say that my wife and child are free?"

"And safe. You get to visit her any time that you want, and last I heard, Rya'c was training with Master Bra'tac. This isn't how it is here?"

"My wife and child must still live with the threat of the false 'god' over their heads."

"Ouch."

"You can say that again," O'Neill drawled, and rocked in his chair a bit. "You still haven't exactly told us why you came here."

"Not quite sure myself. We went on a mission to this planet that had a huge store of items collected from too many worlds to count. I only got enough time to grab a few things and look at a mirror before Jack's call to get out of there quick."

"An attack?"

"Health hazard, I think."

"Good reason for leaving then."

"Only heading back home sent me here," Daniel I commented, and blew out a breath. "Just how that happened, I don't know."

"No ships to take you back then?"

"I'm not sure that'd be needed... although the Ancients probably had them, since they had to put the Gates on different planets somehow."

"'Ancients'?"

"The Gate builders. They were the original creators of the Gate network. Of course, if they had ships, I'm pretty sure that they didn't leave any here," the displaced man admitted.

"And why would a group of big shots like that need to leave a ship here?"

"Because Earth was their homeworld in this galaxy, at least from what the Asgard said."

The local versions of SG-1 all looked at each other in surprise, and seemed to be genuinely shocked about what the implications of what those words suggested.

Letting his fork drop to the tray with a clatter, the out of place Daniel groaned and rubbed his forehead.

* * *

"You were called here because I need someone to represent my interests," said the woman.

Gauron frowned as he took in details. "Why are we in a hotel room with direct access to a sewer?"

"I was injured and my resources depleted," said Marller. "I have recovered enough to do a few things, but I must go back to rest soon. In the meantime I need someone who can do my will. I sought someone who could do that without the artificial restraints of something like a conscience."

"So I was number one on your contact list," said Gauron, sounding amused. "I think I'm flattered."

"You're skeptical," said Marller, sitting back.

"To an extent," admitted Gauron. "Oh, I don't doubt that you have some 'talents' like Morisato's girlfriend." Ah, was that a reaction? A flash of annoyance and hate? Something he might find a use for. "Just for my escape and the healing of my wounds that quickly indicates something extraordinary, but how do I know it was you?"

Marller reached out her hand and the television turned on.

"That certainly wasn't impressive," said Gauron.

"It should be on this primitive device soon," said Marller. "Until then, make yourself a sandwich. While I accelerated your healing rate - the resources came from your own body and you need to replenish those."

"What am I supposed to be watching for?" asked Gauron as a commercial for toilet paper introduced talking bears, briefly wondering what sort of torture these Americans inflicted on themselves.

"We interrupt this program for this breaking news," said an announcer suddenly breaking off the commercial.

Gauron blinked at the picture being shown. "How did you know about that?"

* * *

_Another universe entirely._  
A device had been found. It was simply, as the non-native Daniel had explained, a storage device where he kept his journal and important notes. A flash drive (or key drive) that was accessible by just about any normal computer with a password.

The native Daniel figured out the password, as it was the name of his somewhat crazy uncle.

What was ON the device was another thing altogether.

"As near as we can tell," said Captain Carter, "this was one of the first entries that showed a major discrepency between our universe and our visitor's history. It was taken from security cameras in the Gateroom."

"We're still going through it," said the native Daniel. "This was just something we felt that Teal'c and the General should see."

The image on the television showed the Gate Room as they expected. What was on it though.

* * *

"What's going on?" Carter asked, confusion written all over her face.

"I think all of us would like to know that," Daniel put in.

"Father!" called out a young voice as a group of unarmed civilians in Chulak fashions came through the Gate, and a boy came running over to Teal'c.

"Rya'c!" the former First Prime replied, "How is it that you are here?"

"We came along with everyone else," Rya'c replied calmly, gesturing back at the crowd STILL coming through the Gate.

"'We'?" said Teal'c, sounding a little overwhelmed though his back was to the camera.

"Yes, we," another voice put in, and a woman came to him.

"Drey'auc?" asked Teal'c.

"It is me. We came with the others."

"What is this?"

"The Jaffa are prisoners, and the rest are those who have left their old lives in hope to find a new path," said Drey'auc.

"Refugees," Carter said in wonder, "They're refugees."

"Swell... But how did they become refugees?" O'Neill asked.

* * *

"Waitaminute, hold the tape," said Jack O'Neill. "This is marked when exactly?"

"This would have occurred right about the time that SG-1 had taken Teal'c in," answered Samantha Carter. "Now this next bit is where it gets completely bizarre."

* * *

Drey'auc turned to the Colonel to speak with him. "When the purple lightning came down, and the armies of Apophis fell in battle, there were those who decided that it would not be best to continue serving him."

"'Purple lightning'?" asked Colonel O'Neill. (Oddly enough echoing the one watching the scene on the screen.)

"I do not know what it is beyond that, but it tore apart a pyramid with an ease that spoke of great power." Drey'auc smiled broadly at the memory.

"Okay. I can understand that. But how did you get here?" asked Colonel O'Neill.

"They brought us," Drey'auc replied and pointed towards the Gate, just as three shapes showed up.

"That'd do it. Bringing home strays, professor?" Colonel O'Neill asked.

* * *

"Okay, the me there knows them but who are they?" asked the O'Neill not in the recording.

"According to my duplicate," said Daniel Jackson, wincing at a sudden dizzy spell and twinge of nausea, "those are Professor Soichiro Tomoe - a Japanese physicist who apparently worked out Gate travel mechanics before he was even contacted by anyone connected with the program. His daughter, Hotaru Tomoe, and her bodyguard-ninja Ranma Saotome."

"Ninja?" asked Colonel O'Neill watching as the little girl rushed the onscreen him and hugged him. Apparently he knew this girl from somewhere?

Daniel paused it as the bags were opened and items were being passed out. "You see the hand device? Also various weapons and the usual paraphenalia associated with Goa'uld."

"The papers were apparently instructions on building Death Gliders and other things," said Carter as the screen continued to show developments. "Then there's this."

The scene was replaced by a still picture of a painting.

"That's the girl from earlier," said Colonel O'Neill. "In a figure skating outfit, except that's an odd polearm she's got."

"This scene here is a market the refugees set up on PJ2-445," said Carter as the image was replaced with a slow pan of what was a sort of tent-city. "Apparently they decided to form a refugee colony-world there as allies of the SGC."

"That world was scouted and deemed not of any particular use, unless colonization became a consideration," supplied Harriman.

"Except that apparently THIS was on PJ2-445," said Carter, bringing up another panning shot - this time of a ruined city surrounded by mountains.

"Interesting, but we've found ancient ruins before without anything particularly useful there," said General Hammond.

"-and then there's this," said Carter.

"Holy-" said Jack.

* * *

Death Gliders wheeled and circled in the sky, one breaking off to begin a strafing run.

It never made it, purple lightning splitting it neatly into burning halves.

There were shouts at something else though, and the cameraman turned his shaky camera towards a set of mountains. One of whom was moving.

The cameraman managed to zoom in, getting a good picture of something that was quite obviously a turret as it began tracking and discharging at something in the sky.

Then the camera moved a little as a much bigger turret shifted towards the sky, a corona of lightning forming around the alien gun just a moment before the screen turned white.

The image shifted to a recognizable (if frazzled looking) Samantha Carter. "One of the technicians dubbed our big ally 'the Bolo' after a set of fictional AI tanks whom our big ally very strongly resembles. He, or it, weighs over 38000 tons. Anti-aircraft weapons are apparently mass drivers of some kind. The weapon that took out the ha'tak motherships was a longrange plasma weapon with a roughly 200cm aperature."

"The tank took out a mothership?" asked Jack, wondering if he should take a trip through a Stargate and make a new friend.

"Mothership**s**," indicated Daniel, experiencing another flash of pain and nausea.

"Are you okay?" asked Colonel O'Neill.

The intercom buzzed. "Sir? The prisoner seems to be having some sort of health problem."

* * *

"How did Behemoth start up?!" asked an understandably peeved fellow in an expensive Italian suit.

"It just DID," said one of the scientists. "We had Takuma in there running a test sequence when some power surge hit. Wrecked the freighter it was being built in. Wrecked the dock, and is currently rampaging through Washington DC."

"Have we transmitted any demands yet?" asked the administrator.

"Yes, however, there has not been any reply as of yet," said one of the other businessmen involved.

"It blew up the White House and brought down the dome over the congress building," pointed out the first businessman. "I suspect they're too disorganized to negotiate, much less inclined to at this point."

"Well, that's why we're hiding," pointed out someone sweeping the floor of the warehouse.

There really wasn't any arguing with that point. Though one of the administrators did, just because nobody liked agreeing with the little peasant/peons.

* * *

Helicopters flew around, filming this scene and running it with the frequent disclaimer that this was NOT some special effects borne of Hollywood.

The red giant robot certainly made a sizable target. Standing over forty meters in height, every stride left craters for footprints. Four 30mm machineguns in the head made short work of any vehicle approaching it, while its massive arms and immense strength allowed it to destroy almost anything falling within its grasp.

The military had not been idle as the thing had marched its way from Baltimore. Missiles and bombs had been utilized against it. Despite seemingly having some sort of force-field, SOME of the damage had been transmitted to the outer surface of armor and had deprived it of a howitzer-like rifle that had been used against more than one building in the nation's capital.

"What the hell is that thing supposed to be? Godzilla?" asked the pilot of an AC-130 as they continued to rain ammunition down on a target that only seemed to be hit by one in a thousand rounds.

"Why don't we just use daisy-cutters?"

"Because the civilians are still arguing about evacuating," said the pilot, having been monitoring the communications traffic. "Uh oh. He's turning. Ever-"

Having dealt with yet another annoyance, Behemoth turned towards another symbol of this country.

* * *

"I take it," said Gauron, "that you did this?"

"Yes," said Marller, quite simply. "Simple enough to hex a single power conduit so that it fried the pilot's 'big sister' in front of him and sent him off in a homicidal rage."

"So the big robot isn't something you made," mused Gauron.

"I make use of whatever or whoever is available," said Marller, unwrapping another snack bar.

"My employers are not going to be happy about this," pointed out Gauron. "They weren't nearly prepared for the release of that big boy."

"Tough," said Marller. "If they don't like it, I'll take them over. Might do that anyway."

"So you killed a large section of the government of this country on a whim?" said Gauron before smiling a cold little smile. "Not to mention civilian casualties. I like it."

"It allowed me to do three things at once," said Marller in between bites of snack bar and sipping on a beer. "One - it demonstrated to you that I can do more than just teleport you out of a heavily watched hospital, even as weakened as I am."

"Okay," said Gauron, mightily amused as the on-screen red robot crushed what looked like an apartment building.

"Two - it provides a distraction for those oafs from the Goa'uld to accomplish whatever their lame fool mission is," said Marller.

"I don't understand that one at all, but okay," said Gauron as cars were stomped and trampled underfoot. He thought that SUV there had still had kids in it. And they said there was nothing entertaining on TV nowadays.

"Three - it'll force certain people out into the open in order to stop that," said Marller.

"Looks like they've arrived," said Gauron as the TV camera jerked up to see something new showing up.

"Wha? That isn't what I expected," said Marller, spitting out little bits of snack bar. That does it. She was going straight for the Twinkies next.

* * *

"All units over Washington DC, this is JSDF consultant Sailor Mercury. The modified Tornado entering your airspace is an ally," said a certain blue-haired young girl into her microphone as the ship slowed from its top speed to something suitable for actually staying in an area.

"'Sailor Mercury'?" asked another pilot in the area. "Anything like that 'Sailor V' in England?"

"I'm right here!" said someone in the cockpit.

The Tornado went low as two people leapt out. One raised a hand up. "Venus! P-chan SUMMON!"

The other went towards a rooftop, landing and beginning to assemble something from a suitcase.

A modified A-10 joined the Tornado in the air over Washington DC.

"This is codename 'Sailor V'!" chirped what sounded like a young girl. "Here to assist our allies in the United States! We're packed and rocking!"

"Wow," said someone else on the same channel, "she even mangles quotes just like the British newspapers have said."

"Scanning for weak points," said Sailor Mercury's voice. "Kurz-san? The Vulcan cannon fires in a specific sequence, if you can take out one gun - the others will not be able to fire."

"I've got it," said someone as he finished assembling something and took aim.

* * *

[WARNING  
Vulcan autocannon feed malfunction  
Unable to correct  
Maintenance required]

"WHAT?!" screamed Takuma. "That's impossible! Well, 'Kurz-san' - I'll just have to walk over there and show my displeasure personally."

* * *

Jack O'Neill had seen many strange things during his lifetime, and not all of them had come since he'd been in the Stargate program. From the sorts of amazing things that human beings could do when under duress, to the frightening level of stupidity of some elected officials, to unexplainable strokes of 'luck', he'd gone through plenty of events that had left him with a deep respect for things beyond himself. That wasn't to say that he was about to be impressed by a System Lord, but he also wasn't about to ignore the threat that one might pose.

And yet, through all the strange foods that he'd seen served in military bases, and the odd forms that aliens had taken, he had never seen a military doctor, someone who he knew to be a consummate professional, to wave around a piece of technology like a three year old with a toy camera.

"Having fun, doc?" he asked, raising a brow.

Doctor Fraiser grinned widely and gave him a resolute nod. "This thing is amazing, Colonel. With a simple wave of it over a patient, I can get more information than an entire day's worth of testing. No x-rays, scans, and prodding needed."

"Sounds handy."

"Trust me, it is. It could revolutionize how we treat patients. Until now, I just thought that it would be nothing but science fiction, but I could do anything from finding a bullet, to detecting a toxin, or even discovering a pregnancy, and do it fast enough that the patient's survival possibilities would rise exponentially."

"So... it'll be a good thing to use to help someone who's really bad off," the colonel dryly commented.

"Certainly. I could do a lot for anyone who comes into my care with this thing."

"Really.... Then help them," O'Neill told the medical professional, gesturing to the infirmary beyond them, where the two Daniels lay on beds, with Samantha Carter poking at a laptop, and Teal'c looking on.

"Oh," Janet murmured, looking rather abashed as she turned towards her patients. "I am doing my best for them."

"Don't worry about it."

"It's my job and duty to worry about the people in my care."

"That's not what I meant. You just looked so cute with your toy."

The doctor coughed lightly and drew herself up. "Thanks for the compliment. But I didn't take this out to play with it."

"Need it for something?"

"Caring for Daniel... and Daniel. It's my hope that I can use it to get _something_ that will let me gain an insight into these seizures that they're having."

"Have your previous efforts not garnered any success, Doctor Fraiser?" the former First Prime asked.

"That's what the frustrating thing is. By every bit of medical information I have on them, they should be perfectly fine, up and walking around. But it's like something's attacking them on the cellular level, and I can't figure out why."

"So, the scanner thing...." Jack trailed off.

"Will hopefully help me find a medical explanation for what's going on," Fraiser answered... and then sighed. "If there is one."

Carter took a quick look over her data, and then glanced up at the group. "I'm not sure that there _is_ one."

"Well, _something_ is causing them to have convulsions, and they're getting worse."

"That's just it. I'm starting to think that it's not medical. At least not directly."

"You're thinking environmental," the doctor murmured, understanding showing in her eyes.

"Exactly."

"Good for the two of you to get it," O'Neill put in, and affected a wry smile. "But would you mind explaining it to the rest of the class?"

"Think of it this way, sir. Imagine a fire, if you will. You're not sick as it is, but the smoke settles into your lungs and makes you cough," Janet told SG-1's commanding officer.

"Because of the lack of air, and the chemicals."

"Basically, yes. The important thing is that it wasn't something inside the body that made it troubled. Whatever harm was being done was coming from the outside."

"Or, in this case, from the basic parts of the universe," Sam informed them.

Teal'c raised a brow at his female comrade. "In what form does that take?"

"A simple and rather worrisome situation that I can't quite explain. It's like they're... losing cohesion, phasing out of this time and space. Literally, some sort of stress on an atomic level is causing them to lose the energy that keeps them as what they are."

"Which would cause all sorts of problems in their bodies as they wouldn't be able to function. Like a wire that keeps getting pulled out of a circut, their bodies would be able to function... leading to a loss of physical control, and a bunch of misfires in the body," the brunette suggested.

"Pretty much."

"Well, if that's the case," Jack asked, seeming intent to point out the obvious, "and you know what it is, then why not fix it?"

"That's the problem, sir. It could be a lot of things. Energy fields, time dilation... even a simple 'blow' on a molecular level might have done it. But I can't know for certain what it is until I get more data."

"Then get it," an arriving General Hammond instructed the blonde. "We don't want to lose Doctor Jackson. Either one."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

Ranma knew a lot about travel, having done a great deal of it. He'd walked across Japan, been on ships that travelled the stars, and used Stargates to hop from planet to planet. But if there was one thing that he had discovered about certain types of travel, it was that he wasn't exactly going to enjoy it.

"Ya know, this plane ride ain't 'xactly the most comfortable one 'round," he muttered to the girl next to him, nodding towards the 'bare bones' look of the military craft.

Hotaru gave a helpless little shrug. "We have to get to Washington somehow...."

"That's just it. We were in that fancy sub. Why not take it there?"

"I don't know...."

"Speed," KOS-MOS interjected from her own seat.

"What?"

"If we are to get there with any sort of timely matter, we must do so with the fastest manner of travel."

"Meaning we can't take the sub all the way?" the pigtailed boy put in.

"This is faster, and will allow us to go over land, something that the submarine will not be able to do."

"Ah, gotcha."

"Do you have a problem with the idea?" Kalinin asked him, leaning over the group from where he stood in the aisle.

"Nah, that part could work. It's only...."

"Yes?"

"Bein' in somethin' this simple makes me kinda wonder how we'll do if that giant tin can attacks us before we land," the pigtailed boy replied, glancing over at the 'bare bones' look of the craft.

"Well, hopefully we won't have to worry about that."

All Ranma could do was give his own shrug.

* * *

_Mirrorverse_

Doctor Janet Frasier was really taken with the "toy" taken from the visiting Daniel Jackson. The device was composed of two parts - a "salt shaker" sized device which was the sensor and the larger box that contained the sophisticated LCD displays and computers which took the information from the scanner and not only detailed what was seen - but gave the "normal" range as a reference.

She was deeply envious of this other SGC which had such things apparently as commonplace. She wasn't sure if they could duplicate more than a few parts of it, and thought it likely that such a device would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

In truth, it was priceless as far as a doctor was concerned.

Janet was quite aware of the irony that was involved too. A leap in medical technology had been given the other SGC by a sentient weapon of massive destruction.

"So it's because we've got two Daniel Jacksons here that we might lose both," said General Hammond after the report had been given.

"Yessir," said Samantha Carter.

"We'll have to send the visiting one back," said Janet, not realizing that her grip on the medscanner was tight enough that her knuckles had turned white.

"If it's because of the duplicate in OUR universe," said Samantha, "as we theorize - then the feedback loop should stop the moment he crosses over the gap."

"Is it possible that one of US can go THERE?" asked Jack, leaning against a table. "They've apparently got a LOT of neat toys."

"Inadvisable," said Samantha after a moment of wrestling with temptation herself. "From what we've seen anyone we send has a duplicate over there. They've got extra people and theoretically they could send one of those over here."

"Like that Professor guy?" asked Jack.

"I Googled 'Professor Soichiro Tomoe' as soon as the name came up," said Samantha. "All I came up with was someone in a Japanese cartoon sharing the same name. No indication we've got one in our universe."

* * *

_Originating Universe_:

"Keep trying to find Doctor Jackson," ordered General Hammond. "What have we got on 'Behemoth'?"

"The armor on that thing is at least a half-meter thick, where it isn't thicker," reported Morisato while consulting a clipboard. "Supplemented by a force field. It is apparently using Goa'uld flight mechanisms just to keep itself from falling apart from its own weight."

"Is it Goa'uld?" asked General Hammond.

"No," said Teal'c. "Goa'uld technology does not utilize such things, nor does the design fit."

"Nope," agreed Jack. "If it were THEM, they'd have given it some animal-shaped head and energy weapons."

"That would fit their aesthetics better," agreed Teal'c.

"What about our ships?" asked Samantha Carter. "It would mean blowing our cover and revealing ourselves to those spies - but it's not like that's not getting reported."

"We have a distraction in place," said General Hammond. "We're set to reveal the existence of the Sailor Senshi and of the yoma we have in the Utah facility."

"They're going public?" asked Jack.

"Not completely," said General Hammond. "We're simply releasing that they exist, that we know about them and their battles, and that the United States government is part of an alliance of governments who have pledged to aid them. Their secret identities remain that and come under the protections granted to CIA Deep Cover operatives and the like."

"So their secrets come under National Security and if the press goes after them..." said Samantha Carter, letting that trail off.

"You're throwing them to the sharks so the whole program doesn't come out into the open," said Jack, not liking it.

"I don't like it either," stated General Hammond, his eyes raking those of everyone in the room. He was completely sincere and didn't hesitate to let everyone involved know about it. "Unfortunately, Behemoth was apparently built with technology stolen or leaked from our various programs and there is no way to conceal that. Not with the current damage and casualty estimates."

"Colonel Maybourne on the line, Sir," called out Harriman. "There's a flight of SAMAS en route now, they will be presented as anti-yoma weapons as far as the press is concerned."

"What took him so long?" asked General Hammond, puzzled for a moment. "I would have expected him to be champing at the bit."

* * *

Brent Williams watched CNN. He held a normal job (roofer), lived a normal life, and hadn't seen anything particularly surprising in that life.

CNN currently showing a giant robot towering over 130 feet over the streets, knocking over buildings. This was enough to get him to knock off for the day and crowd into a bar where other people were also staring at the bizarre sight.

"This can't be for real," insisted someone for what seemed like the 400th time.

"Casualty reports," said the CNN reporter, "are over 4000 at present! The main weapons have been knocked offline, but the... hold on a moment. Sailor V? Sailor V?!"

"What's next?" asked someone to Brent's right. "Bigfoot? Little alien fellas from Roswell?"

* * *

"Marller crossed the line, but there still is little we can do," said Urd.

"What? Even with THAT?!" exclaimed Jack O'Neill, pointing at the television.

"This is mainly human action," explained Urd. "Humans using technology that you have available from your scavenging. Much of which was, admittedly, stolen. All Marller did was manipulate the existing situation."

"So what can you do?" asked Samantha Carter.

There was a fan of light appearing, and a little creature popped up into view.

"And you are?" asked Jack.

"I am Thor, of the Asgard," answered the little Roswell "gray" sort of alien.

"You don't look a thing like..." Jack indicated the differences between Thor and Urd with some vague gestures.

"Thor is of the Aesir," said Urd, "I am of the Vanir. Technically. Entirely different branches."

"Quite," said Thor. "As this problem has been accelerated by one of our kind, we have some moderate assistance to give you in that regard."

"Any help would be welcome," indicated Jack.

"As a matter of fact," said Thor, "there is something we can assist with."

* * *

Brent Williams had heard of Sailor V and these others. Like most people, he'd assumed they were tabloid fodder of the sort normally encountered in the company of 'Bat Boy' and 'Chupacabra' and 'Elvis Sightings' - just more silliness.

This was CNN though. The news was also on every other news station that was checked as people tried to find out if this was yet another hoax.

"We've just received word," said the anchor, "that the USAF is deploying their own combat specialists. Do we have any idea what these 'SAMAS' are?"

"Strategic Armored Mobile Artillery Suit," said a correspondent on the television. "Power armor using technology similar to that of the giant robot now laying waste to our nation's capital."

"IT'S A CONSPIRACY!" declared someone in the bar. "They're all in on it!"

"Nah, it's all just special effects," said someone else. "Remember Hitler's jig? Same thing here. Probably be used as an excuse for more military sh*t."

"Yeah, military's always doing something shady," agreed someone else. "Idiots. We should just disband the military."

"Damn warmongers," agreed the one who had brought up Hitler.

Brent wasn't sure, but he thought the two were probably Philosophy majors from the local college. He wasn't sure about whether the stuff on TV was for real or not. Right now it was fairly easy to tune out the talk about casualties and just settle in to enjoying the special effects - if that was what they were.

If they weren't, Brent supposed things had just gotten really damn complicated.

* * *

The SAMAS arrived. They came in a squad, which was six men. They were, as the name implied, not stand-up infantry or tanks.

There had been stand-up infantry and tanks sent against Behemoth. Some of the infantry was still around, having scattered on it becoming obvious that small arms fire was simply not going to work.

Each SAMAS was a powerarmor suit with jet engines and wings. There were two weapons systems available, not including the use of the enhanced strength for melee. One was a small handgun there for emergency purposes. The second was the actual main gun, which was (for this mission at least) the M242 Bushmaster.

"Receiving targetting information from Mercury," said Colonel Sauer. "Relaying. Status?"

"I'm showing an intermittent red light on my ammo feed," said one of the others. "Just started after that turbulence."

"If it jams, peel off - go to low altitude and evasive pattern then return to load zone," instructed Sauer. "Everyone load Combat Program Apache." When everyone's telltale had shifted to green from yellow, Sauer nodded in his power armor. "It's showtime, girls. Attack."

Jan Sauer knew this was going to be a right bear. Things had not been going too well so far. "And try to avoid targetting our allies."

* * *

Private Fatima Sawhas hadn't been in the United States Army THAT long. She'd been deployed during the emergency and hadn't really believed what the reports had been until she'd seen the thing. Her comment had echoed that of the rest of the squad when she'd actually seen it.

The engagement against this enemy had been mostly depressing. The armor on that thing was thicker than it should be possible and that forcefield thing kept flicking on when the big artillery could be brought to bear. The highlights had been when the Air Force had taken out that rifle, mainly by hitting it from behind with a bunch of missiles while another one targetted the rifle. That momentary glee had fallen when Behemoth had turned its head-cannon against the flyboys.

Now the Vulcan had been taken out by some sniper who must have been DAMN good, and Urban Legends were gouging the armor and dancing around the giant like particularly annoying mosquitoes. Except, as noted, the armor was getting gouged away by these mosquitoes.

Private Sawhas looked up at another roar and expected to see missiles. Instead there were silvery human-shapes with jets and wings that had a VERY familiar flag on them shooting overhead, then peeling off to engage the target.

"Oh, I have just SO got to apply for that division," said Private Sawhas.


	27. Chapter 27: Officers and Outfits

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything. Don't have money. Just written to hone skills and amuse readers.

Chapter 27: Officers and Outfits

* * *

_Originating universe_:  
There was a lot that Jack O'Neill didn't like, and he was not particularly willing to keep such opinions to himself. Unless he had a particular reason, such as the situation not calling for insubordination, he was always finding the time to mouth off and express himself. This wasn't some sort of game for him though, and he usually did it in response to certain stimuli, like having Colonel Maybourne show up to watch events unfold on the screens in front of them. Nor was he about to make comments that couldn't bite at the situation at hand.

However, there were certain things that he did find some pleasure in when the chips were down.

"I know that I really should be focused on some military plan to save the day, but...." Jack trailed off, and then gave a small shrug. "Somehow, the fact that a bunch of paperpushers won't have desks to sit at cheers me up."

"At least there are things that people like you can enjoy," Maybourne drawled, smirking slightly at the other man.

"Come off it. Even if you're a backstabbing weasel, you know that you'd like to see some bureaucrat get some big new windows."

"True. But you and I both know that, as much humor as we can find in the removal of red tape offices, we do have a lot more to worry about. Like handling this emergency."

Pressing his lips together, O'Neill sighed. "As much as I want to deny it, you have a point. I'd just like to think of something more than the fact that we've not only got good soldiers heading into a fight with that thing, but we shoved those kids out there too."

"We can't be sentimental, Colonel."

"Tough call when you've seen at least one of them almost as your own."

"You must be talking about Miss Tomoe," the other officer airily commented, and then waved his hand dismissively. "They should be okay."

"Excuse me?"

"Well, I shouldn't mention this, but our research boys have been going over the data we have, and they've said that those girls have some real tricks up their sleeves. I'd imagine that a girl who can escape from a mothership can help herself a bit."

"I'll still worry."

"That's your choice. Except that we already have plenty to concern ourselves with. They are part of a larger fight."

"And you have your little 'Ziggy' project ready to put them back together, right?" the SGC colonel asked.

"Not... exactly."

"What? Humpty Dumpty really couldn't go back on the wall."

"Oh, it wasn't a failure... completely. The thing is that it's also not what I'd call a massive success," Maybourne admitted.

"How's that?"

"We've had to go back to the original codename for the project. 'Ziggurat'. Structures from ancient times that stand tall and strong despite the forces against them... just like what we're trying to build. Apparently, it's going to be a work in progress."

"Don't tell me that you're just using good men for... guinea pigs," Jack growled, turning to glare at the other man.

Maybourne snorted, looking thoroughly disgusted. "Despite what you think of me, I'm not such a bad guy. And we aren't playing games when we try this out. Imagine what it's like if that next soldier we try it out on next can walk again. Or hug his kid?"

"But it hasn't quite worked yet."

"Which is why we have to go to a numbering system. First one was too bulky to be really feasible to put into mass use. Second deadened certain... neurological functions a bit too much."

"And how many people are going to have to go through this?"

"Too many," Maybourne softly replied. "And I'm wondering if anyone we're watching is going to be one of them."

Even if he didn't like Maybourne, Jack knew that he had to agree with that sentiment, and hoped that Daniel Jackson was safe wherever he was.

* * *

_Mirrorverse_:  
Jack O'Neill looked at the man on the bed, and found himself still amazed at how much he was like the one that he knew. Both of them looked much the same, and had he not known that there were two of them, he might have never noticed the difference. Hell, right now he couldn't even stop himself from worrying about this stranger who wore his teammate's face.

"How are you feeling?"

Looking up from his bed, Daniel Jackson glanced at the seated Samantha Carter before sending a bemused look towards the colonel. "Pretty good. Other than the fact that I've got the sword of Damocles hanging over my head, I'm feeling a bit spry."

"Silly question, I know. But I had to ask."

"I can understand that. There isn't anything that you really could do, is there?"

"Not as far as I know."

"Glad that you're honest," the displaced archeologist remarked, and looked to where the native version of himself was sleeping. "What about him? He going to be okay?"

"Well...."

"He's getting it less, but it's there. And there isn't anything that we can do to stop it," Sam revealed to him, her expression apologetic.

"Great. Nice way to brighten my day. Guess I brought this on the both of this, hmm?"

"Actually...."

"Sam...."

The blonde let out a deep breath and slumped a little. "Yes, as far as we can tell, it's the fact that there are two of you that's causing this to happen. Basically, the universe can't handle having two 'Daniel Jacksons' at once."

"Imagine that," O'Neill drawled, smirking just a bit.

"In any case, the only way that we can see to get you well again would be to send you back to your own universe."

"And since we don't know how I got here, you can't use it to fix all this."

"Pretty much."

"Guess this fits in with the 'worst day ever' category," Daniel grumbled, though he didn't seem intent on blaming anyone around him for what was going on.

"We'll keep on trying. There has to be some way to make this right...."

"Which might be found after I've killed him and me with what's happened."

"Sorry...."

"Don't apologize. It's my own damn fault. I mean, after we managed to handle Ra, I couldn't leave well enough alone. I just _had_ to go and see what I could learn. And that's led to this. So, instead of living out my life happily with my wife, I'm on the brink of discovering if there really is an afterlife."

"Come on, Jackson," the colonel admonished, narrowing his eyes at the alternate reality version of his friend. "You have to keep your chin up... or something like that. Remember, Carter's trying to find you a way back home. She's really trying to make this work, you know."

"I don't know how much I can actually do, but I _am_ giving it my all," Samantha admitted, brushing aside any show of pride.

"Don't mind my attitude. It's just this whole mess that's getting to me. And it could have been avoided really easily. I mean, if only I hadn't wasted time in going to touch that mirror, I wouldn't have been blinded by that flash, and actually seen what was going on."

Carter opened her mouth to say something... and then stared at him for a long moment. "_What_ did you say?"

"Huh? I only mentioned getting blinded when I touched the mirror."

"Okay, now things start coming together...."

"What are you talking about?"

"I have to agree with him, Carter. You're not making sense," Jack added in.

"He said that it was a pretty dark room before, right?"

"Something like that. But what does that have to do with anything?"

"There shouldn't have been enough light in there for any 'blinding flash', Colonel. It breaks laws of physics...."

"So says the woman who travels to other planets by walking through a giant metal hula hoop."

"I'll give you that," Sam allowed, and looked between both men. "But that also gives another example towards my point."

"And that is...."

"Think about it. It _looks_ simple enough, but the Stargate can get us between worlds light years apart. I think that there was something on that planet that caused this Daniel to jump between his universe and ours... and I'm starting to think that it's that mirror."

"Hold on, you're saying that he stepped through the looking glass?"

"Pretty much."

"And reflections do have a history of being considered as images of what might be. Or what is opposite of what is being reflected," the archeologist put in, leaning forward just a little.

"What do you want to bet that, if we go to that world, we can't use the mirror to send you back home?"

Neither man seemed willing to take her up on that wager.

* * *

"Death toll continues to increase from giant robot rampage. Surviving members of Congress are putting together a committee to study this tragedy and find someone to blame for it. Protesters have lined the streets in San Francisco and other areas, calling for the military to give up on the production of such high profile weapons," said the newsanchor just before the TV returned to on-the-site video.

"Okay, THAT is kinda predictable," said Jack.

"It's unlikely they'll blame the ones actually responsible, as this 'Trust' group has too many favors owed and money changing hands," said General Hammond, idly picking a pen up off the table and then letting it fall.

"Ah," said Colonel Maybourne, going to the edge of his seat and watching the CNN feed. "Now THAT is interesting."

* * *

He'd been in Kuwait during the first Gulf War. He had been a quadruple amputee. He was a Marine with a large number of skills that had become partially unavailable when his transport plane had been shot down. Those skills had become fully unavailable in a little concrete room when the enemy had decided to take out their frustrations against this American who wouldn't talk.

Before that, he'd also seen his son and wife killed by terrorists, though in that case they'd simply been traveling abroad in Italy of all places. It was just a minor incident, one that barely made the papers. After all, it was just five people killed - two of whom had been Americans. Not such a big deal and it had been long years ago.

Colonel Jan Sauer had found himself contacted and had been among the first to receive the new replacement limbs. Relearning to use arms and legs had been difficult, but his had been a difficult life and having limbs again was a sufficient 'carrot' to bring him back into the military.

Now he had four limbs again, but they weren't a perfect match. Sense of touch was off, according to the doctors it was less than 45%. He also had frequent twitching and almost a palsy effect that hit without warning. The strength in these experimental limbs was less than that he was used to - which had been very disappointing to someone who had seen the 'Six Million Dollar Man' TV series back when it had originally aired.

Now, however, he was using his piloting skills to good use in a SAMAS 'Wing Leader' suit emblazoned with the US Flag and dodging a giant robot's attacks in the nation's capitol.

Which merely proved that the future was something he'd never been able to predict.

"SAMAS Leader, this is Mercury."

Sauer reached out with his tongue to click a lever inside his helmet. "Mercury, this is SAMAS Leader."

"Behemoth's missile-rifle is out, likewise the Vulcan array in the head. That leaves thrown missiles-of-opportunity."

Having seen an SUV that had been imbedded in a school for the deaf, Sauer acknowledged the point. "We've noted. Our vehicles are sufficiently agile that we can avoid most such attacks."

"I'm transmitting updated technical data pinpointing the remaining flight generators which keep Behemoth from collapsing under its own weight," said Mercury. "Venus has been able to remove the outer armor portion of the left shoulder generator, but has been unable to get a clear shot at the generator itself."

"Roger," responded Sauer. His tongue moved the lever up, switching channels. "Units. Attack formation Zorro."

As the SAMAS split up, to commence high speed strafing of various points, Sauer sped up and ducked around a building. A dip down towards ground level brought him over a group of soldiers hunkered down behind an overturned bus, then out and past another building.

Sauer began the loop back, gaining altitude slowly and trying to avoid a motion that would draw attention to himself. He checked, and Behemoth was turned away from him - still trying to swat the A-10 and the occasional SAMAS. All of which appeared to be gnats next to this giant.

The M242 Bushmaster 25mm chain gun was what they had for this mission. It was a compromise, being one of the weapons they'd had available and something that the SAMAS could handle. A mix of armor-piercing and high-explosive rounds had been loaded. Sauer lined up the shot and let fly as soon as he'd reached a 2000 meter range and heard the chime to indicate 'target in range'.

The target was easy enough to see. An 'X' shape had been gouged in the thick shoulder armor by whatever the A-10 was packing. The rate was 220 rounds per minute, but he only had four seconds during an approach at that speed.

Then he discovered what happened when your SAMAS got backhanded by a horrendously oversized giant robot.

* * *

"Well, little Mimetic Organism," said Professor Tomoe. "I wonder how Hotaru is going to take having a little sister?"

"The prototype is unable to speak at present," the factory reminded the Professor.

"The problems with the mechanical doggies will be properly addressed by this 100 series, but you'll have to deal with emotional attachments," said the Professor.

"Human-machine dynamics can be quite perplexing," admitted the factory, or its AI to be more precise. "Of course, that is why we are attempting these different designs."

"So, what shall I call you?" asked the Professor. "Something friendlier than Mimetic Organism, Multi Observational type 100."

"What's wrong with MOMO?" asked the factory.

"Sounds like a magical girl series," grumped the Professor. "One in the family is quite enough."

* * *

There was a cheer from the other soldiers at the first metal groan, then people covered ears as the groan went up the scale into a metal screeching that was painful.

The chest of the big red robot started collapsing, but then both arms sagged. At which point more and more of the robot codenamed Behemoth started falling apart.

Private Sawhas went for her gasmask as a cloud of particles began shooting out of the robot, though she didn't really expect it to be a chemical agent.

No, this was most likely just parts of the robot falling apart under the strain.

"If you can take the pilot alive - do it," Private Sawhas called out as the cloud rolled over them. "I WANT this mother standing trial. Killing him gets him off way too easy."

* * *

In terms of a land-mate, it wasn't exactly the same as what others would think in 'mech' terms. The basic design principle for them was that it wrapped around the user, rather than having a seat for piloting. As a result, anyone equipped with one would do something more akin to 'wearing' it than 'driving' it, as would be the case with a tank or armored truck.

This didn't particularly bother Mamoru in the least. In fact, he found himself almost at home in the units, almost like it was styled for him. With the way that the system was set up so that his own body movements could direct the land-mate, it was like wearing a gigantic suit of armor, albeit a technologically advanced and heavily mechanical version of that.

Heck, as he considered the weapons that he'd gone through in his training so far, he could almost feel like some sort of old European knight, which had him wondering about the possibility of personalizing his own unit. Not that he couldn't see the modern advantage of having not only guns and bombs, but the swords did cut quite well, and it helped to have something that wouldn't run out of bullets. Sure, he hadn't adapted to them quite yet, but it felt right for him, and he did have to admit that he was having a bit of pride at being at the forefront of this new technology.

If nothing else, it was terribly amusing to see how things were worked out. It was only natural that heavy combat units were going to be bulkier than the streamlined scouts, but he hadn't exactly expected all the arguments. He did understand the reasoning for having all the units be designed under practical guidelines, but he did have to wonder if there was a point to the idea that not all of the new 'suits' should be 'male'. Of course, he was still wondering how some of the designers had managed to get the sort of curves on a combat machine that had one thinking of busty women, even tough ones, instead of a metal suit.

But he was basically pleased with this turn of events. Many of the military sort of activities just weren't his thing, as he didn't have quite the talent for them as some others did. Being a technician or a sniper was good for some, but this was where he felt a bit more comfortable than others.

However, there was something that bothered him somewhat as he panted within the confines of his land-mate, with the sweat beading on his brow threatening to drip into his eyes. "May I ask something?"

"Go right ahead," Sergent Takeo Kumagami asked, not sounding winded at all.

"Why are _you_ my trainer here?"

"What? Do you have a problem with my qualifications?"

"It's not that," he told her. "It's just that.... You were my hand to hand combat instructor."

"So?"

"'So'.... Why have you here, now?"

A sound that he couldn't identify came from her, and before he knew what was happening, she had moved so that she was right in front of him. Twisting her own land-mate around, she faced her back towards him, and yanked his machine's arm over her suit's shoulder. Then, with a quick flick of the hips, she sent him crashing to the ground so that he was left staring up into the air.

There was almost an audible smile in the sergent's words. "When you can do that, you can be a useful instructor, don't you think?"

He could only groan in response.

* * *

She hadn't been quite sure about how it had happened. Sure, she had been doing more to get her English skills honed as of late. It had helped with dealing with their foreign allies, after all, and the possibility of going to a school outside Japan eventually wouldn't be so bad for her chances to be a doctor. And she understood how her companion's experience living in England had helped her be able to passibly communicate in the language.

What Sailor Mercury couldn't figure out was how she and Sailor V had wound up becoming the 'spokesgirls' for the team when the camera lens had been stuck in towards their faces.

"So, what you are telling us is that you are warriors here to bring combat to our shores?" asked the reporter, whose pinched look seemed more antsy than anything else.

"That is not so," Mercury corrected. "We come to... how do you say, help you out? We saw danger, and had to help protect people."

"How do we know you didn't cause it?"

"Because it is stupid to send a giant robot to make a mess? No plan, or anything like that?"

"I'll give you that. Then why haven't you come here before?"

"No reason to," Sailor V replied simply enough.

Mercury nodded. "Why go where we are not invited?"

"Is that why you have only stayed in Tokyo? After all, our research shows that you have long been an urban legend," the reporter almost growled.

"'Urban legend'?"

"You know, a story that is passed around that could be true, but no one knows if it is? Well, you have been in and around Tokyo for a long time. Why not try to help out in other places?"

"Is not that what we did here?"

"And I helped out in London!" a clearly offended Sailor V muttered. "Besides, all the monsters tend to be in Tokyo already."

"That's true. They do tend to show up there often enough. It seems to be some sort of focal center."

The reporter, who seemed to have developed some sort of facial tic, jumped on that last bit. "Then you say that the city of Tokyo has some sort of... advantage over other cities in countries that are not Japan?"

"What are you talking about? Having creatures attack innocent people is not an... 'advantage'. And lots of things are happening everywhere. We go as needed."

"Then what are you supposed to be?"

"Warriors of Love and Justice," the blonde Senshi chirped.

"Yes, but what does that _mean_?"

"Huh?"

"Isn't there some sort of secret meaning behind those words?"

Sailor V took a long moment to stare numbly at the reporter. "Are you saying that you don't understand 'love' and 'justice'? I thought that was simple enough...."

As the reporter was left blinking dumbly, Sailor Mercury had to admit that the other Senshi had a point.

* * *

Mamoru Chiba understood his role, and he understood its importance.

There were times that the girl he was dating in between assignments, one Usagi Tsukino, would be leading her team of girl-warriors into deadly conflicts with world-wide repercussions.

He was to understand exactly what the various military and other governmental branches could bring to assist such endeavors. He was being trained in the latest capabilities they had available, the latest technology and techniques, and among their best warriors.

He had no idea if the American military was as some of its foremost critics among their own countrymen was largely composed of kill-crazed convicts from its prison system. He was associating for the most part with its elite, and that group was most definitely not among such criminals.

The groups he associated with had long histories which were steeped with such concepts as duty and honor, of chivalry and ideals, of service and pride, and of tradition. All of which the Japanese boy felt were concepts that did indeed matter. Both to him as a Japanese, and as apparently a reincarnated Prince of some ancient kingdom.

It didn't really help when the Land-Mate he was in was getting thrown about - but at least he understood why.

Next week promised to be interesting. He was going to be trained by the British in psychic defense techniques. He hadn't even known there WAS such a thing, but then that seemed to happen a lot with this new job.

* * *

"Ship's support integrity has been increased to maximum possible using nanites," reported Nimitz to his commander. "K9 units will depart as soon as testing is complete."

"Very good," said a bemused Captain Honor Harrington. "Weapons?"

"All turrets expected to be fully operational by end of week," said Nimitz. "Docking rings for vehicles are already completed."

Captain Harrington nodded at that. The space battlecruiser design that had been worked out had docking areas where properly outfitted spacefighters could physically link up with the ship. Air, fuel, and ammo could be transferred to the spacefighter without the pilot exiting their vessel. It had yet to be tested in anything like battlefield conditions, but the design itself had come from offworld - and the caninforms who had employed it hadn't left any notes about its actual effectiveness.

* * *

"Very impressive," said Gauron, smiling at the demon girl. "Thousands dead, most of their insipid government either dead or in disarray, and their press is now looking through the survivors for people to nail against the wall."

Marller waved it away. "A start. Nothing more."

"This is intriguing," admitted Gauron. "Unfortunately, my ties to my current organization will be difficult to shed."

"Not a problem," said Marller. "Go ahead. Play with those loyalties yet awhile. I'll call when I need you. They're liable to be a little disorganized themselves right now."

"Ah, I'll need to find them then," said Gauron before vanishing.

Marller held the confident pose after teleporting her minion for a moment before slumping. "Oh Hell's Belles, that overdid it. Rest. Rest is good. At least I've got a decent minion now."

* * *

"They don't understand 'love' or 'justice'?" asked Minako, repeating herself but still trying to come to terms with the idea.

"I think it's the concept of someone willing to fight for those ideas that makes it incomprehensible to them," murmurred Ami, who'd also been taken aback when it was clear that the American press just wasn't buying it. She sat back into her chair on the military jet and closed her eyes, willing the day to be over.

"But it's the truth," complained Minako. "The British press can be kind of mean, but that was just plain awful."

"Why did they ask the same questions over and over again?" asked Ami. Frankly, she'd rather go back and face the giant robot again before another press conference. "Well, they're taking some of those press people and congressmen over to the yoma holding facility tomorrow, maybe that will give them some evidence they can accept."

* * *

_"The question being asked here is simple. If the government had the technology and ability to fight something like this machine attack, why didn't they stop it before hand. Many lives would have been saved, and buildings would still be standing. And they have not yet told us just how it was all paid for, or how it was made in the first place.  
All we are given is the opportunity to wonder if we want to have the forces protecting us using young and clearly impressionable girls as soldiers, especially foreign ones."_

* * *

Jabbing a finger onto a button of the remote, Senator Kinsey silenced the television and then dropped the controller onto his desk. Without any sign of agitation, he leaned back in his soft leather chair and folded his hands into his lap. But it was clear that he was not relaxing, nor was he slumping.

"We need to make our move now," he finally said, turning only his eyes towards his aide.

The younger man raised his brows at the senator in mild confusion. "What do you mean, sir?"

"I 'mean' that the time has come for us to really act to advance our position around here. This is a time for the true leaders to step up, and I plan to be at the forefront here."

"You want to take command."

"No, my desire is for them to be replaying my quotes long after I say them. Days, years... even decades later, I want them to look back and say that here was a good leader. A _great_ one!"

"Well, at least it'll do you well in the next campaign. You could use this well if you want to run for president," the aide suggested.

"'If'? Son, I plan on sitting in the Oval Office as soon as we get rid of the old baggage."

"That sounds workable, but the thing is that we need something as leverage."

"And they gave it to us," Kinsey murmured as he leaned forward.

"They did?"

"Of course. Stargate Command."

"But...." the younger man trailed off. "I thought that you liked the SGC."

"I like how they've been gaining strength for the Earth, and our country in particular. And I like how they have gotten plenty of alien tech for us to use. What I don't like is the very fact that they've been playing with that damned alien ring, and I sure as hell don't appreciate the fact that someone's fallen asleep at the switch. That metal monstrosity had to come from alien technology, and that means that it leaked out somewhere. We were supposed to be working to keep this sort of crap from happening."

"Then you want to audit them."

"We funnel enough taxpayer money into their pockets for them to be beholden to us. They have to answer for what they've been spending the money on, and I'm just the one to look over their books. I'm going to check into the finances of the SGC and see to make sure that they're scared straight, at the very least," the senator stated, his voice and expression hard.

"And if they aren't up to snuff?"

"Then there are always places to trim the fat from."

* * *

There was much to be done on the ships in Heru-ur's fleet to prepare them for battle. Supplies had to be stocked, weapons had to be prepared, and drills had to be run. As Jaffa culture had been engineered to guide the enslaved race into such activities, it was run smoothly and efficiently.

And the 'god' that this was being done for sat on his throne and looked as impressive as he could.

"Bring up the communication with the vessel investigating the Tau'ri world," he commanded.

"Yes, my Lord," replied a Jaffa as he entered the required commands into the control panel in front of him.

The System Lord waited until the image of another Jaffa filled the screen before speaking. "Report."

"We have located the one who seems to be the leader of this world, and at a good time," the spy responded. "It seems that one of their cities was hit by some sort of attack by an out of control machine."

"Good. What of this... 'leader' that you speak of? Is he in your custody?"

"It is a female, my Lord, and yes, we have her."

"Her gender is interesting, yet irrelevant for the time being," Heru-Ur told his underling.

"Yes, my Lord."

"However...."

"My Lord?"

A frown curved the System Lord's lips. "Why are you not in my uniform?"

"It was the idea of this planet's leader, Paris Spears. She did not think that we would pass well in our armor."

"Your prisoner has been assisting you?"

"She apparently desires it. According to her, we are... 'kinky'."

"Is that why you are dressed as you are?"

"That is the case, my Lord," the Jaffa on the screen answered as he picked at his leather vest and chaps.

* * *

Hotaru was content with her current location, which would have surprised her a few short years ago. As a young Japanese schoolgirl, even one with a father who was a physicist famous in certain circles, the idea of being in the dangerous and exotic United States would have been odd enough. Being on a military transport heading for a place called Colorado Springs would have moved that idea to laughably unlikely.

Nonetheless that was indeed where she was. Of course, she'd known about her fiancee since she was in elementary school, much less at the lofty (relatively) age of fourteen - so sitting next to him wasn't something she would have expected but wouldn't have been surprised about.

That she was sitting near a robot-girl would have fallen in that not-foreseen category.

That part was actually the more disquieting bit of the whole thing, as KOS-MOS was frequently staring in their direction.

Hotaru found herself fidgeting under that stare.

"Mercury Scout Plane is coming alongside," said a voice from the intercom.

Hotaru blinked and looked outside the window. Sure enough, after a few moments the blue-enameled space fighter was paralleling their course. After waggling its wings, the ship shot ahead at a high rate of speed.

"Huh," said Ranma, noticing. "I wonder if you'll get a spaceship."

Hotaru blinked, that idea HAD occurred to her previously, but she'd dismissed it soon after. Maybe though...

* * *

KOS-MOS watched the two in their seats. She, of course, did not need a seat. Even in the event of turbulence, she was capable of keeping her balance and locking herself into position.

The two humans were two of the most potentially dangerous entities she had yet to encounter, with the possible exception of the one known as 'chaos' - as she had catalogued Ranma's capabilities during the fight with TELOS.

They were, however, her allies. The real enemy was still out there. Power and capabilities were unknown but what the military had designated as 'Dark Senshi' were likely to have a power level equal to or exceeding that of the two allies she was observing.

That, however, was not why KOS-MOS watched Hotaru and Ranma. She wasn't sure herself of the odd feedback loops of emulated emotional response currently active within herself. Why and what and how - ever since she had reincorporated the TELOS self, odd reactions had been surfacing.

It bore further observation.

* * *

"So what do we have?" asked the figure.

"Simply put, the plan was for us to field a single spacebattlecruiser," said the Colonel of the Luftwaffe's hastily (and secretly) put together Space Division. "We went with the name _Bismark_."

"That's certainly in poor taste," said the government official.

"It's subject to change," said the Colonel with a shrug. "I went to the dogs with a request."

"Excuse me?" asked the official.

"The dogs? The robot dogs that are our technical advisors and helpers?" asked the Colonel. "The ones from that world with the tank."

"Oh yes, the Refuge... well I suppose we can't call them androids," mused the official. "What was your request?"

"We wanted a design for our starfighters significantly different from the ones being used in the American and Japanese factories," said the Colonel. "We gave them the overall design, they tweaked it and came up with schematics. We got together with the officials of a Princess Diamond who doesn't have quite our own resources but has a few of her own. They're producing the hulls while most of the inner workings are being produced in a set of our own factories with a variety of cover stories."

The official blinked as the display showed one of the vehicles being put together. "I thought we were going with space-tanks?"

"We thought so too, but those are on the 'back burner' for now," said the Colonel. "The sticking point is the armor. However, we do have these units which are modified significantly. Dual-engine, single cannon up front, mainly uses torpedoes for offensive purposes. Sort of a 'bomber' if it were an air-based vehicle."

"Not very aerodynamic though - are they?" asked the official.

"They're not really ideal for atmospheric flight," admitted the Colonel. "However we ARE making them so that they can dock and refuel at any docking ring that we or the Japanese or American forces utilize."

"I think I saw them in a 'Star Wars' film," said the official. "We're not going to get sued are we?"

"Superficially they might resemble 'Y-Wings' but that's all," said the Colonel.

* * *

"Thousands dead, thousands more homeless, fires are still raging in some areas, and few answers coming out of Washington," said one reporter.

_klik_

"-was evasive as to why these children-"

_klik_

"-refused to answer questions due to 'having to concentrate on the emergency at hand'-"

_klik_

"- Sailor Senshi, or 'Sailor Scouts' as they were previously dubbed by tabloids here in the US, are apparently real - as are their opponents. British reports of the one dubbed 'Sailor V' have told of this positive and perky girl who utilizes her powers for the good of all. So WHY are we being hostile towards her?"

"That's what I'd like to know," said Minako, stopping the channel flipping.

"Is it simply because our paradigms are being challenged, our cherished worldviews that we hold dear, and we react as if it were some sort of personal attack? So let's set that aside for a moment, because that sidesteps the important thing. These girls came forward to help US, despite not being US citizens. To help us deal with what is apparently a worldwide problem. So let's knock off the hostil-"

_klik_

Sailor Mercury partially turned her head from the controls to regard her passenger. "Why did you turn it off?"

"We're almost at the base," said Minako with a shrug. "You ought to rest before you fly back to Japan, that's a long boring flight even with the Mercury Tornado!"

"I haven't decided on a name yet," protested Mercury as she guided the ship down.

* * *

"NO!" cried out the pop star as the pain staff was jabbed into her low back. "NO! PLEASE!"

One of the Jaffa pulled the staff back, looking satisfied.

"Why are you stopping?" asked the pop star as she looked back over her shoulder. "That hurts so GOOD."

The Jaffa exchanged confused looks among themselves, as this wasn't going AT ALL the way they'd figured it would.

"She's more formidable than we thought," confessed one of the Jaffa to another. "How are we going to get the secret plans?"

"'Secret plans'?" asked Paris. "Oh those. They're in that chubby little robot. Har-Dee or Artie Deco or something like that."

* * *

Sailor Pluto liked to think that she had something of an appreciation for music. Despite the fact that she wasn't a music snob as far as she could tell, she certainly knew what she liked, and wasn't afraid to accept her tastes for what they were. Given a violin concerto, a track from Ella Fitzgerald, a record from Led Zepplin, or a song from Mr. Children, she was entertained and able to relax. Her tastes were varied, and she'd experienced music from all sorts of eras and generations.

If she'd had her way, certain pop tarts would have been left quite alone to their own devices.

Still, she was moving along in a Jaffa ship, making certain that she wasn't been heard or seen. That wasn't to say that she was creeping about, but her calm stride wasn't of the sort that was rushing to draw attention. Rescue missions didn't go well if one was going to muck it up in the beginning, and she wasn't all that enamoured of ruining her 'mission' with some stupid misstep.

Of course, it was fortunate that they didn't seem to have much care about any sort of intruders at the moment. True, this wasn't much of a sizable vessel, and she was not part of its crew. If anyone noticed her, they would have sounded the alarm, but the fact was that having someone board their ship outside of some sort of forceful entry wasn't exactly expected.

What she did know as her boot heels sounded against the floor was that it was pretty easy to do this, although she had thought that it would be. After all, this wasn't quite the most well run operation, and a lot of assumptions had been made. If she'd been able to, she'd have indulged in some mocking of those involved, since it would have fit.

She'd simply have to settle for blinking at the sight of the so called 'pop star' when she did see her.

At first glance, it would have seemed that Paris Spears was in desperate straits. Her arms were manacled, and the binding was what the barely clad girl was hanging by, as it was attached to a chain which had her arms held over her head. Sweat glistened over her body, and made her hair stick to her head in matted clumps. Whimpers escaped her lips as a weapon of some sort was jabbed into her side, and she bucked and thrashed with each brutal pull.

The Senshi had a distinct desire to look away, and it wasn't due to any hatred of torture. Rather, she didn't want to watch what was clearly an absurd example of misunderstandings. These captors had an obvious desire to force out any information that they could from their prisoner... who wasn't exactly feeling all that bad about her present situation. They had no idea that the glaze in the girl's eyes was from pleasure, that her moans were not of pain, and that certain things were poking out on the chest of her blouse.

All that Pluto could think was that she didn't want to see some scrawny bimbo get her 'jollies', as that wasn't her cup of tea. Sure, she had no problem with the desires of others being acted out, but in those cases, it was done out of her sight. Unfortunately, as much as she'd like to let the girl go on with the odd 'adult play', there were other considerations. This experience might be useful if it would muddle up any leak of information from the SGC, but she had no desire to let this girl experience too much to let her babble out.

So, she decided to be as polite as she could be. "Pardon me."

"Huh?" went one Jaffa... right before she slammed the end of her Key staff right onto his head.

The others reacted quickly to the sudden appearance of her in their midst. Even if they lacked an understanding of the truth about their prisoner, they were trained warriors, and had the skills to prove it. They went for their weapons, and tried to get out of the line of fire.

However, this hadn't been designed to be any sort of combat arena, and that worked to her advantage. Her opponents had to keep themselves from hitting their comrades, but she was alone, and free to bash anyone who wasn't female. As a result, one wound up folded over her staff when it was slammed into his gut, and another discovered that a 'Dead Scream' really did some damage to the equipment panel behind him... especially as it exploded.

"Come on now," the Senshi told the dazed girl. "It's time to go home."

"What? Why? You're no fun. Hmm... But I like your outfit though. Kinky," Paris Spears mumbled, her head bobbling like some doll's as she smiled vacantly at her rescuer.

"You need to get some rest."

"But I've been...."

"Yes, I know. Your new friends don't though, and they need to be free of you."

"Huh?"

"Let's just say that we can't let someone like you out of our sights," Pluto reluctantly admitted, almost shivering at the damage that this single blonde could manage if given the chance.

"Got that right."

"You really need protective custody," the green haired woman grumbled as she transported the two of them away from the ship.

* * *

Heru-ur was displeased, and that was never a good sign for his underlings. However, he was merely simmering, and hadn't had anyone 'punished' as of yet, although that could have been due to exactly what had happened. "You are telling me that you lost the prisoner?"

"Yes, my Lord. Unfortunately, when their agent came onto the ship, we were unprepared for her attack," admitted the Jaffa on the communication screen.

"One woman accomplished a rescue in the face of your group?"

"That is true. But... she looked similar to the one who was said to have destroyed Apophis' ship and caused the havoc on Chulak."

"I see. Then would seem to prove that the prisoner really was important to them." The System Lord looked thoughtful for a moment. "That is good to know. I am on the right track then."

"My Lord?"

"Wait there until we join you. We will be leaving shortly."

A Jaffa didn't show fear as a rule, but sweat beaded on the brow of this one. "Of course, my Lord."

"And we will decide how best to punish this failure when I arrive."

"Yes, my Lord."

"Switch communications to the fleet," Heru-ur commanded with a wave of his hand. "All ships, prepare to head out."

Each of the Jaffa on his bridge bowed their heads with respect before touching the controls that would open the cloud like hyperspace window.

* * *

"What of these primitives? How much resistance can they put up against my forces?" asked Heru-ur.

"Great Heru-ur, the reports of your agents in place over the target have been gathered," said the Adviser. "The world of the Tau'ri is one with no central government, who have instead small nations ranging from the size of a large farm to that of an entire continent."

"Pitiful," said Heru-ur, who commanded worlds after all. "What of their space travel?"

"Other than access to their Stargate, also pitiful, Great One," said the Adviser. "They are at the stage when simply sending something up into orbit around their world is a great effort only a few of their nations can manage. They know what space is, but the vast majority see no value to be achieved out there."

"Pitiful and idiots," said Heru-ur. "Are we sure we're talking of the right planet?"

"Indeed, Great One," said the Adviser. "An Asgard ship was seen prowling the system, yet our spies report that it was apparently just monitoring their progress. It has since left."

"The Asgard are of no consequence," smoothly lied Heru-ur. Still, it made things a little dicier. He'd have to go in and conquer this world, then pull back his forces. A fast show of force and lots of destruction, then the Asgard wouldn't find anyone to use their damnable technology on.

"They do have a grievance council that has worldwide authority," continued the Adviser. "Known as the United Nations, it's main function is to throw complaints and 'lawsuits' at each other."

"I see nothing to change my earlier opinion of these fools," said Heru-ur. "Which would seem to indicate that Apophis' failures were the result of this other world or his own incompetence."

"Just so, my lord," said the Adviser, whose name was Toa-Dee but preferred to be known by his title. "Your wisdom is of course without measure. They have a hidden set of rulers, one of whom we were able to briefly get some information from."

"Ah yes, they have some secret plans which are hidden away in some sort of small robot," said Heru-ur, scratching at his chin thoughtfully. "We'll have to keep an eye out for such."

"As the Great One so desires," said the Adviser.

"Are the ships ready?" asked Heru-ur.

"We have four Ha'tak class ready," said the Adviser. "Twelve Al'kesh. Each Ha'tak has two dozen Death Gliders and three Tel'tak with a full complement of Jaffa for shocktroops."

"We shall not need the Tel'tak," said Heru-ur, making an offhand gesture. "We shall simply destroy and not occupy."

"As the Great One so desires," repeated the Adviser. "We shall depart then, the moment the final preparations are complete. Within the hour."

* * *

"Mister Kinsey, a moment if you would," said a blacksuited man next to a limousine.

"Ah yes, I was expecting this," said Senator Kinsey, waving off his aides. "I'll be in my office shortly."

The door was held out, and Kinsey showed no signs of nervousness as he entered. Which was not the case by any stretch of the imagination.

"Senator Kinsey, you are looking well," said the man in the limo.

"Let's cut to the chase," said Kinsey. "You made a mess."

"We ran into some unforeseen difficulties, and there is evidence that there was some form of interference," said the man from the Trust.

"Whatever the case, the executive branch is gone and they're getting that temporary President," said Kinsey in a tone of extreme distaste. "You promised me your support in my bid."

"Which is still next term," said the man from the Trust. "We're merely curious about your investigation into the causes behind the giant robot's construction."

"You needn't worry about that," said Kinsey. "I'm investigating the SGC, which is quite clear of any of your personnel much less the source of the technology. I'm not going to incriminate myself after all."

"We wouldn't have recruited you, nor offered to back you, if you were that foolish," said the man from the Trust.

"Good, now that that's clear, I have work to do," said Kinsey.

* * *

Paris Spears woke up in her hotel room, an empty bottle of Vodka on the nightstand and her usual recreational medications scattered over the surface.

"Just a dream?" asked the pop tart, disappointed at the concept.

After a few moments though, she brightened and called up one of the costume designers that she'd worked with for a few concerts. That fetish outfit would be PERFECT for her new single. Have the dancers in similar outfits and maybe that key-staff could be rigged to throw sparks or something.

* * *

"Why us?" asked the member of the press.

"Because your network has been the least antagonistic," said the General. "No, scratch that. Your network has been the least downright hostile. If we're to imbed your reporters with our forces, having someone willing to at least consider the potential cost of loss of life is a consideration."

"And secrecy is apparently necessary until everything is actually hitting the fan," said the manager of that network with a nod.

"We have to seize every advantage we can, and that includes how much we know about them," admitted another General.

The manager looked around at the various directors and newsmen that had been included in this. Most looked eager. A few looked skeptical. Still, the decision wasn't an easy one. It amounted to agreeing to censorship in return for which they had a chance of seeing the Truth up close. In fact, they would be revealing the Truth when the time came.

It wasn't really a choice, decided the manager. He'd gotten in this business as a copy boy, then reporter, editor, and so on. He'd always wanted to find that shiny little treasure called Truth and he'd always held to the Truth being out there.

"We're in," said the manager, leaning forward in his chair to hear the details now.

* * *

"This is what we found," said the technician, clicking the lights on in the vast underground hangar.

"I suspected we'd find one here," said Professor Tomoe. "This one's taken damage."

"When the enemy arrived here and infiltrated, they apparently realized this was a weapon of sorts and sought to disable it," said the technician.

"Yes, I'd imagine that's the core access," said Professor Tomoe. "The central brain would be that area that was attacked. Without that it's just a lump of metal."

"It was a weapon system built for a different enemy, one that would attack much as the Goa'uld do," said MOMO.

"True, and I knew if Refuge had a BOLO, that this world would likely have one as well," said Professor Tomoe. "Well, keep me apprised. I have to keep at the current project for now. Maybe later. Oh, and let the BOLO back on Refuge know. I believe that would could as 'next of kin' in this case."

* * *

"When are these things going to be ready?" asked Ranma, his foot tapping on the circular design on the floor.

"It'll be so nice to get back to Japan in seconds instead of hours," agreed Hotaru.

* * *

Fingering her staff wasn't something that Sailor Pluto tended to do, but then she had very little to do at the moment. If she went into full attack 'mode' at the moment, it could cause a big mess, and she didn't feel like having to play that sort of game. She knew that she was way too mature for that sort of screw up, and had little desire to explain how someone like her could do that to the officials of Earth. Even just giving a warning could be a mess, since tampering with the time stream a tiny bit could leave things much worse off, as it would change the circumstances of the situation before the event would happen.

Sometimes, being the 'Senshi of Time' could be a real pain.

Still, she wasn't totally addled, and had plenty that she could do. All that she needed to do was to figure out what sort of intelligence she could pass on, and do so without compromising her various identities. Information was power, and she could give the military the data that she had on what was going on at the moment. Considering the fact that they would be more than prepared for any assault that could be coming their way would no doubt be a surprise for Heru-ur, but then that was the amusing part. Once one saw one pompous would be world conqueror, one tended to see them all, and getting to see one getting totally flustered and shown up was rather fun to contemplate. Not that she wanted to really get close to the System Lord, since he was part of a group that kept slaves. Even if he wasn't going to want to try and turn her into some sort of concubine, it was entirely possible that he would want to infect her with one of his snake like buddies. Considering the idea of having something like that infest and take over her body was not something that she wanted to have happen, no matter if she wasn't sure that it could happen or not, it was no surprise that she was disgusted by the concept.

However, it was not that thought that had a shiver run down her back, oddly enough. To be truthful, she didn't even understand why she'd done that, as the corridor that she was in was warm enough. Being in her Senshi uniform hadn't really bothered her before, as it did tend to actually work better than its lack of coverage would have usually resulted in. As it was, she was as comfortable in it as she was in her civilian outfit, or her military uniform, as she'd noticed that she rather looked good in the latter.

For all intents and purposes, Pluto could simply not see why she was feeling like a chill wind was coming her way.

* * *

The costume designer was used to having to deal with pop 'stars', as it was rare that they had 'normal working hours'. If one was a hard worker, then that one tended to have to squeeze in appointments such as this one whenever they would fit. On the other hand, too many of them just acted on a whim, basically expecting the designer to come right to them, no matter what that person was doing. Considering the fact that they tended to pay well, and rarely lasted anyway, it was easier to pander to their foibles, and give them what they wanted, especially as it tended to lead to a larger pay check.

Such was the case with a certain blonde, who was currently looking almost ready to leap onto the sketch pad being held out for her. "No, no! Something's off.... The boots have to have good heels. Stiletto ones!"

All the designer did was nod, since it wasn't that hard to do such a thing. It wasn't like _she_ would have to dance in the damned things.

"And that collar.... Lower it. Gotta show off what's there. The boys love it...."

Glancing over at the client, the designer began to wonder what exactly the girl want to show off, but stopped as she realized that she might not want to know.

"And a collar. A leather one, like the skirt and boots. And gloves!"

From what the designer could tell, a choker would have not only fit the bill, but actually looked better, but she wasn't looking to have a real design come up. Besides, perhaps the bows on the chest and backside would make it a bit more 'innocent'.

"Remember that the satin parts need to be tight. _Really tight_."

"Certainly," the designer agreed, although she didn't voice the fact that she wasn't sure that the combination of satin and leather would exactly be the best.

"Maybe I should get a tan," mused Paris Spears as she tried to remember what she could from the hazy memories of her latest 'trip' had left her of that woman in the sailor style outfit. She was going to replicate that outfit as best she could, even if it had only been a dream. After all, if she'd come up with such a sensual and strong figure during her nap, it had to be something that spoke of her creativity.

The fact that she was 'creating' something based on the actual uniform of Sailor Pluto wasn't something that she was aware of, which wasn't surprising, considering how she'd missed the fact that there were other Senshi out there. Since she wasn't exactly known for thinking deeply, she'd likely grab for the nearest and easiest explanation. For those on the outsides, she'd be seen as simply imitating the design of the girls who'd so recently fought against the giant monster robot.

Of course, she was seriously twisting the design, which would now flash panties every time that someone tried to dance, but then she wasn't quite adverse towards using 'sex' to sell herself.

And she rather liked the way it looked.

Unaware of the chills that her glee was giving her rescuer, Paris Spears smiled as she fine tuned the costume.

* * *

The four Ha'tak slowly and majestically broke orbit as soon as the last ship arrived.

Toa-Dee scratched his balding head for a moment. "We have an extra Death Glider? How did that happen?"

The commander of supply merely shrugged. "Nah. It's just a substitute. We found some damage on one of your regularly assigned ones. Looks like some space rock hit it and it wasn't found for some reason. We looked all over to find you this one."

Toa-Dee shrugged himself. It wasn't that uncommon an event when you put it like that. Death Glider patrols ran into problems all the time. Just old space junk hitting your ship was a problem at the speeds the ships normally went. "Fine, fine. If there's any problems with it, it's your head on the line."

* * *

"The Ring Transport system isn't completely set up yet," said General Hammond. "Once it is, we'll have transport IN system as well as transport out of the system."

"Unfortunately we'll need a naquadah generator for each set, that's the sticking point," agreed Carter. "The caninforms used different power sources, and they're not really compatible."

"How so? I thought they put out a fair amount of power," said the General.

"Naquadah generators are ideal for short bursts of power," explained Carter. "They can put out a spike of energy lasting for roughly thirty eight minutes or a lower amount of energy for longer than that."

"Whereas the 'fusion box' technology?" asked the General.

"Those don't spike very well," said Carter. "Continuous performance but they fall short of the amount used for a Stargate. If we had BOLO-sized ones maybe, but they'll require substantial conversion equipment to be used."

"Too bad, but they will work for what we have planned?" asked General Hammond.

"If the BOLO comes through, Sir," admitted Carter. "Admittedly it's done all we could expect of it. As long as we treat fairly and above-board with it, it will do the same with us."

"Maybe we should keep the politicians away from him," said Jack as he entered the conference room.

General Hammond actually seemed to consider that before changing the subject. "So which set are we going to test?"

"The first test will involve the set of the Cheyenne Ring and the Area 51 Ring," said Samantha Carter. "We'll be sending computers and fruit, a cage of lab rats. Just to make sure everything works. The second test will do the same thing, but will be from the Cheyenne Ring to the JSDF Base."

"Good," said General Hammond, settling into his chair. "Now what about our spies overhead."

"Currently they're en route to Lagrangian Point L4," said Carter. "At least that's what it looks like. Something apparently happened to indicate we found them as they dropped any pretense of hiding to run."

"Either that or the invasion force is en route," said O'Neill.

* * *

"Camera crews," said Captain Honor Harrington.

"I'm afraid so," said the aide.

"I saw some of that in the Gulf War," said the Captain. "I won't tolerate them getting in the way or giving out classified details. I'm also not inclined to tolerate disrespect upon my vessel."

"They're currently being briefed, and have vowed cooperation," said the aide. "They are very interested in being able to get exclusive coverage of the battle."

"Hmmm," hmmmed Captain Harrington, standing before the command chair and looking at all the battle displays around her. Currently they were just showing ship status or altogether off. "I suppose you're hoping for public support if they have a ringside seat in this fight."

"That's what the pay-tee-bee are hoping for," admitted the aide. "After all, this is alien parasites masquerading as gods coming to enslave us. There might not be the level of mass protest we've come to expect."

"You're young and optimistic," noted the Captain.

* * *

She stared and as what she was seeing penetrated - she began trembling.

When she'd been a kid she'd seen the old hokey sci-fi of the previous generations. She'd seen _Star Trek_ and _Lost In Space_ and that sort of thing. She'd seen some of the newer waves of stuff too - and some of that had penetrated.

It had been her reason for joining the Air Force in fact. Eventually she thought she'd go commercial pilot, maybe a helicopter with one of the MedEvac companies. Instead she'd ended up working for a TV station in a major market because plans just never seemed to work out with reality. Yet the dream remained underneath all the maturing realism, even though she'd long come to realize dreams never came true.

Except now here she was. On the flight deck of a ship bearing the name _USS Iowa_.

Her guide cleared his throat and seemed vaguely amused by something. Probably seen it all before.

She decided she just didn't care. If this was a dream, she wanted it to continue as long as possible before she had to return to a more practical reality.

* * *

They were men and women who had been long hardened by what they did for a living. Others might have had to go through the pain of war, or had to deal with the suffering of crime, but these were individuals who knew that it was they who were causing a good part of the grief that they covered. In their line of work, one tended to see all the excesses of human nature, and they were right there to capitalize on it.

After all, it took some particular individuals to go out and turn marriages, divorces, deaths, embarrassments, and all the other things that a famous person might experience and turn it into 'news'.

Not that they were particularly sure that they should be there at that moment. With what had happened in Washington, things like the foibles of entertainers weren't quite so... important. Some just thought celebrating anything at the moment would be in bad taste. Others mumbled about how no one would be particularly enamoured of running to the gossip pages so soon. And a few were already just plain tired of whatever new 'scandal' was going to 'rock the world' this week.

Still, they had shown up, and were prepared for a bit of tasteless prattle that only a 'pop queen' could get. It was the usual sort of 'paint by numbers' sort of news conference, with the stage, pretty potted plants, and signs decorating a fairly common sort of set up. In essence, it was eminently forgettable, as would be expected of an event staged at the last moment. The music and colors might have changed over the years, but this still the same.

Even the emcee was fairly normal, given that she was dressed in street clothes, and one of a number of hopefuls looking to use this to go further in her own career. "Hello everyone, and thank you for coming to our little event! It's our great pleasure to have you all here for what promises to be a surprise to all of us. Only those most involved actually know what is going on, which means that even our workers are in the dark."

There were a few snorts and laughs, especially when one voice murmured about how they were _always_ that way.

"However, we do not mean to keep you waiting all that long. Right here, on this stage, Paris Spears plans on giving you a glimpse of something that she's been really passionate about."

To that, no one had much to say since there were plenty of things to be excited over in the world of the famous, worthy or not.

"Now, just so that you know, she's been hold up in very intense meetings with her personal stylist, and they've been working on something special that simply could not wait for her next show."

"What?" asked one young reporter. "Is she coming out with her own clothing line?"

"Not exactly. You see, she has a theme for her upcoming tour, and she plans on having you see what it will be."

Despite not being as focused on the hard news as others, these reporters were experienced, and had gone through other such announcements, which meant that they just took pictures and notes.

"Without another moment's wait, here she is, our singing sensation, Paris Spears!" the emcee cried out, more out of creating a mood than any real excitement.

Out came the 'pop princess' strutting her stuff and wiggling her hips as she walked.

And those jaded reporters, who had long since reduced displaying extra-marital affairs and stalkers to mere rote, simply _stared_.

For this was not merely some new jumpsuit or jailbait outfit. Part of her stride was probably due to the above the knee boots with the stiletto heels that had her feet positioned so that she was basically walking on her toes. Then there was the _extremely_ short leather skirt to her outfit that looked more like a dust ruffle, rather than any real protection against having her panties seen. Of course, the other side didn't help as the satin of the outfit was more like a shiny corset, given that it squashed her chest and threatened to pop her breasts out from under the already precariously based neckline. The bows on her cleavage and back _should_ have given some coverage, but were more likely to frame certain areas like an invitation. With a black leather dog collar on her neck that matched her boots, skirt, and gloves, it seemed that she was sending out some sort of sexually defiant message... although no one was quite sure as to what that could be. All that they did know was that she had a crown on her head, which seemed to be odd for someone wearing something akin to an old style naval uniform.

Paris Spears didn't seem to pay any mind to the shock that she'd just incurred. Rather, she was happy to dance rather erotically, thrusting her body in ways that gave those watching the knowledge that her 'panties' were really part of a single unitard, and that she certainly wasn't wearing anything under it. This was amply displayed when she seemed to hump the giant key that she was holding, and stretching out her tongue as if to lick the crystal ball at its fat end.

"Oooh yeah!" the pop starlet called out, and then twisted into a standing pose, one foot in front of the other. "How do you like my outfit?"

Everyone started talking at once, and it just became a jumble of voices going higher and higher until one man managed to be heard clearly. "Miss Spears, is this some sort of attempt to pattern yourself after the 'Sailor Senshi'?"

"Eh?"

* * *

Kinsey was not a happy man, and he could list exactly why that was. The normal sort of 'pomp and circumstance' that would be paid to a senator was completely absent, no one was letting him do his work, and he had a mere airman as his only contact with anyone who worked there. And the damn boy was just a guide and contact.

"It has been _how_ long since I got here?" Kinsey grumbled and glared in the direction of the enlisted man. "Does the general understand how important this is?"

The airman gave an apologetic shrug. "I'm sure that he does, sir."

"Then why isn't he here?!"

"Well, I don't know all the details, but apparently the base is on alert, sir."

"With what went on in Washington, I suppose," the senator murmured.

"That is my understanding."

"And this means that everyone has to be at their stations right this very minute?"

"Basically... yes."

"What a joke. Who decided on going with such a useless waste of money?"

"From what the communications say," the airman calmly replied, "it looks like the Department of Defense made the call. Or at least whomever is running it right now."

All that Kinsey could do was grind his teeth in frustration and wonder how such a block could come up right then.

* * *

The flight deck was typical of its sort. The various Death Gliders in their berths, the walkways, and the occasional Weapons Officer inspecting them.

"Did you see something scuttle across that..."

The Senior Officer snorted. "How long were you on that pesthole of a world we just left?"

The Junior looked off into the darkness and tried to make out what he'd seen. "A few months."

"Count yourself grateful," said the Senior. "As soon as we're off the deck, we'll vent the atmosphere. There were these _creatures_ - pests really. A carrion eater, but not a picky one if you understand. Damn things bred like... they really bred."

"Nasty things?" asked the Junior, hurrying to catch up with the Senior.

"Harmless, but annoying," said the Senior. "Insect-like, but capable of deforming its body to fit through cracks. Damn things get in everywhere."

"Ah," said the Junior, glancing back at the gleaming shapes of the ships.

"After we've vented the atmosphere and then replaced it, we'll need to run an inspection of all ships," said the Senior. "These Tau'ri will be fighting a REAL fighting force, unlike Apophis' ragtag forces."

"As you say, sir," responded the Junior, hearing something back among the fighters. What kind of horrible pest creature had a call like that?

* * *

She was sitting in the mess hall at Stargate Command, having a lovely chat with General Hammond, and sipping on a green tea.

It was another thing that had changed from what she knew of such things. They had apparently arranged to have a chef who was familiar with Asian cuisine, and had green tea on the menu. Not a particularly great green tea, but better than one might expect from a secret underground military base in the United States.

They also had red tea and white tea, which was apparently a side-effect of having those medical scanners around. Antioxidant choices were marked on the menu with a little symbol for those pursuing such things.

However she was taking a sip of tea when the channel surfing someone was doing on the TV caused her to erupt in a spit-take worthy of classic comedians of years past. It was a measure of her self-control that she avoided tagging General Hammond, but instead hit three people two tables away - one of whom was the guy with the remote.

"I take it something's..." General Hammond's voice trailed off as he looked himself. "Now THAT is just plain wrong."

Lieutenant Susan Mayo, JSDF, aka Setsuna Meiou, aka Sailor Pluto, twitched. "Just when I think my opinion of modern music has hit rock bottom."

"Someone finds a way to lower the standard?" asked the General.

"Quite," said Lt. Mayo.

The General nodded. "When I think about my granddaughters watching her videos."

"Right," said Lt. Mayo.

"In any case," said the General. "Urd choosing you as a potential ambassador has some benefits."

"The Ring transporters?" asked Lt. Mayo.

"Yes, among other things," agreed the General. "Though there is one thing I have to wonder."

"That being?" asked the Lieutenant.

"What our 'Senshi' allies will think of that," said the General.

"Oh, rather poorly I would think," said the Lieutenant with the air of one who knew.

"Since you ARE the Japanese liason, and the Asgard think so highly of you," said the General, "I wonder if you'd consider another assignment."

"What would that be, sir?" asked the Lieutenant, finishing mopping tea off her table.

"We're planning a trip to the Moon to check into a site that may be left over from the Silver Millenium," said the General. "Interested?"

* * *

"Urk," said Ami, putting her usual eloquence to the side for this.

"That outfit isn't cute AT ALL," said Usagi.

"I think I'm going to be sick," said Makoto.

"Can we sue?" asked Rei.

* * *

"Xenos factory defenses are now operational," said the factory. "Particle Cannon are accumulating charge and will be ready in approximately three days."

"Excellent," said Professor Tomoe. "Refuge's BOLO has agreed to the deal that the Joint Chiefs set forth?"

"The negotiations on the small print are still underway," said the factory. "Which is understandable. The particle cannon are entirely too large and inefficient to interest your own military, but access to my manufacturing capabilities is something that they find quite intriguing."

"Because of the nanotech supervision that is required for this facility, having an AI is pretty much a requirement," admitted Professor Tomoe. "Of course, it isn't like it doesn't profit them as well."

"This facility can turn out carbon nanotube and buckyball structures as required," said the factory. "I still have no data on this 'super-unobtainium' that the one General requested."

"Just put that aside for now," said the Professor.

* * *

Ranma wandered through the area, noting that Refuge had grown a bit more since he'd last walked through.

His father's monastery was a little more complete, there were a few more tents that had sprouted up, some tents had merely moved, the fields were a little more developed, and so on. It brought home how much time had actually passed.

"Ah, there you are," said a familiar voice, just before Ranma rolled rapidly to the side to avoid someone landing on his head.

Genma nodded to his son. "You need to stick around and watch over things here, son."

"What for?" asked Ranma.

"Earth is going to be attacked soon, so I'm trying to arrange to have your mother brought here," said Genma. "Someone's got to look after things and continue teaching while I'm doing that."

"Huh," said Ranma, seeing the point but suspecting that his old man had some weird ideas he wasn't mentioning. "I suppose. Don't be too long. Me and Hotaru's supposed to be back before the invasion takes place."

"I'll just be a couple of days," said Genma. "'Damn bureaucrats.'"

Ranma nodded. Enough soldiers used that phrase (usually when trying to get more toilet paper or other supplies) that the English phrase was one of those practically every Jaffa and foreign national first learned here in Refuge.

Well, he could use some more time sleeping and eating and practicing his moves anyway.

* * *

Kinsey was ready. He could always rely on anti-military groups, and a few words in the right ears and a few dollars in the right places made sure that there would be protests going on when he needed them. SOMEONE had to buy the permits after all.

In a couple of days his leak of the existence of contingency plans for several terrestrial invasions would hit the news and be linked to secret budgets. Never mind that the DoD made up contingency plans for everything and anything that they could come up with as even vaguely plausible. Kinsey wouldn't have been surprised to find a DoD Ultra Top Secret contingency plan for invading Antarctica to stop Communist-armed insurrectionist penguins.

That hitting the news would trigger the protests, the anti-military groups would swarm out, and he would have his prepared speech to announce his investigation of the whole thing. All carefully prepared and gone over for sound bites that would play well with his constituency. It might take awhile to remove General Hammond, but the seeds of his downfall were put into that speech - where anyone coming along after could refer to it later on. That'd show the man for keeping him waiting.

All would be right with the world, and the way would be paved for his eventual presidency.

The only thing was waiting for the final findings from those investigating RoboGate. Honestly, what was with those morons in the press that just about any scandal in Washington had to have a -gate stuck on the end of it so they could readily soundbite it?

Kinsey shrugged as the thought crossed his mind. Simple minds were easier to lead, so who was he to complain about it?


	28. Chapter 28: Press and Paris

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything. Don't have money. Just written to hone skills and amuse readers. Originally written by myself and Kender_Sci over at the Anime Addventure.

Chapter 28: Press and Paris?

* * *

It was a simple enough thing to understand, given that there was a lot of attention that had to be directed properly. There was a certain amount of protocol involved, and no real rush was there. After their long flight, they could lean back and take it easy, giving themselves time to not only be debriefed, but recover from any lingering stress or jet lag. Then they just had to walk out from the base in their 'hero' forms, which would make it clear that they were officially sanctioned before they could 'slip away' back to their civilian lives.

This basically worked until Sailor Jupiter found a microphone being shoved into her face.

Despite not being allowed to go onto the base, the press wasn't about to let such a story go away. By their judgements, the Japanese people needed to know what their young champions were like, and so were ready to move to report on anything that they could find. Since this was such a major story, they were going to be out in force, and there was a moment's hesitation as the Senshi tried to leave the base. With that moment of indecision, an opportunity was given to the mob of reporters, who descended on the pretty girls, with flashes popping and camera lights glaring.

Oddly enough, one of the first question that could actually be understood was the one directed at the tall Senshi. "Have you heard about the outfit that the American pop musician Paris Spears has come out with?"

"That thing?" Jupiter blurted, unable to keep her disgust from her face.

"Then you _have_ seen it."

"Not that I wanted to."

"I see. That means that you see it as some sort of mockery of your own costumes, doesn't?"

"Hey! This is a _uniform_," the green eyed girl snapped, tugging on her fuku. "Just because she wants to make some... lingerie to wear outside doesn't make it the same as ours."

"But don't you also wear a revealing outfit?"

"Ours is cute though! See? We look good in them, and they're stylish too. That outfit that she made is... icky," complained Sailor Moon, shivering a bit.

"Not to mention the fact that we didn't exactly design these things ourselves," Mars muttered.

"Interesting," put in a female reporter who smiled like a predator that had just got a scent of a wounded prey. "Then that means that there is someone else involved here."

"I'm sure that there is. But I'm sure that whatever she came up with has nothing to do with us."

"I see. What _do_ you have to do with it?"

Sailor Mercury sighed and tried to look directly at the cameras. "Our uniforms came with our powers, and are linked with them. If you are a Sailor Senshi, then you have to wear something like this."

"So she could be one of you."

"I really doubt that," the Senshi of Fire snorted, crossing her arms over her chest. "Have you seen what she's wearing? And it's not like she has any powers... other than apparently seeing the world in a really weird way."

"Are you saying that you wish to distance yourselves from her?" asked another woman.

"We don't want to be near someone who'd be so... disgusting in the first place. I mean, look at us! Do we look like we're that desperate for... perverted things?"

The reporters looked up and down the long legged form of the girl in the red skirt, with some of the men letting their eyes linger a little too long.

"Eyes up, idiots!"

"Besides, don't we move easier and comfortably like this?" Moon asked. "After all, her outfit looks so uncomfortable, and I'd just about die from embarrassment if I had to wear that."

A male reporter made some notations on his pad. "Then where did you girls get those outfits from in the first place?"

"If we could tell you, we would. But we really aren't able to," the blue haired Senshi admitted, wondering if they would ever really know the answer to that question.

Her words got a few nods and sounds of understanding. Military secrecy was rather strict, and one didn't break such codes lightly. The armed forces tended to come down hard on troublemakers as quickly as possible.

* * *

Her weapon was quite easily found, as it was on sale in many different shops, and would be expected to be in a place like this. Secrecy was easy to keep up when one could slip into an area as easily as she could. Evidence would be hard to come by, seeing as she wouldn't be all over the place, and was even wearing gloves. And the target wasn't exactly the most cautious individual by far.

As such, Sailor Pluto was happily able to focus all her attention and energy on this one attack. In the long run of things, this wasn't a major matter, but she wasn't about to leave it be. What had brought her to this had been somewhat humiliating, and she wanted to get her own for that.

That was when a certain blonde bimbo came strolling through like a spoiled princess, never noticing when the tall woman came out behind her and smashed her on the head with the blunt force instrument.

"KA BONG!"

Down went the would be star, dropping to the floor like a battery powered doll that had run out of juice.

"Interesting. She really does have that 'swirly eye' thing going. I thought it was only in the cartoons that happened," Pluto cheerfully murmured before tossing the guitar that she'd just used to whap the girl down to the ground.

Seeing the dazed girl like that rather pleased the Senshi, and she let a big smile stretch across her features. It wasn't her usual sort of activity, but she was happy with it all the same. Oddly enough, it felt rather... cathartic, to tell the truth, and she felt pretty good about herself.

Humming a cheerful little tune, she walked away from the sprawled pop tart, and felt rather good about the world as a whole.

* * *

"This confirms it," said one of the Jaffa.

"Indeed," said another Jaffa. "Not that we needed confirmation. Just that she managed to escape indicates her competence."

"She is indeed one of the secret leaders of that culture," said the third. "She almost had me fooled into thinking she was merely an idiot."

"When our god arrives, he shall cleanse this land with fire," said the first Jaffa, named Bi'gs.

"I think this bears further scrutiny," said the second Jaffa, named Wed'j.

"What is it?" asked the first.

"It is some sort of cultural education program," guessed the second Jaffa. "Low amounts of clothing have something to do with their ranking in their secret society."

"Interesting," mused the third.

The first Jaffa joined the other two in observing the activity in the monitor. "What is this called then?"

"It is called 'Baywatch,'" said the second Jaffa.

* * *

"Ah, General Hammond, sir," said Susan Mayo. She looked over the room set up for Ring Transport. "The Ring is ready to test for the Tokyo linkage?"

"Yes, indeed," said the General, making a gesture.

The Lieutenant frowned thoughtfully as the various technicians filed out. "Sir?"

"Before we get started, let me just say we have tested this on normal matter without incident." General Hammond seemed to consider something.

"'Normal' matter?" asked the Lieutenant.

"We haven't tried anything that uses the 'Silver Millenium' technology yet," said the General. "Though obviously if we go to the Moon, we'll have to."

The Lieutenant from the JSDF considered that for a moment. "How did I blow my cover?"

"I had suspicions early on, but it wasn't until the Asgard took you into space that I realized what must be so," said the General. "Of course, it was flagged as a potential problem before that when the officers you served under had no recollection of working with you."

"I see," said the tanned woman.

"There were also little details you either didn't know or didn't observe," said the General. "By the way, since we also have figured out that you're Sailor Pluto - do you mind if I call you that?"

"That depends, am I in trouble?" asked Sailor Pluto, letting her uniform fade out and her Senshi uniform fade in.

"No," said General Hammond. "Though I think it would be best if Lieutenant Mayo 'retired' at this point."

"I see," said Pluto, relaxing slightly. "I take it we're not monitored here?"

"No, they've left and all monitoring equipment is turned off," said General Hammond.

"Trusting of you," said Sailor Pluto. "What if I were one of the 'evil Senshi'?"

"The Asgard wouldn't have invited you on their ship," said General Hammond. Not mentioning he had a passive medical scan going on him because trust was one thing - being stupid about it another.

"So, if I find it handy to be 'Lieutenant Susan Mayo'?" asked Pluto, who HAD found it had its uses. Though she also found herself enjoying 'playing dress up' as it were.

"We retire the Lieutenant, and I call a few people who can set up an identity with a few less holes in it," said the General. "Any preferences?"

"Hmmmm," hmmmed an intrigued Sailor Pluto. "I'll have to think about that." Ninja princess? Special Agent? Work for NASA? If the USA and Japan were going to be expanding their space branches, they'd need uniforms wouldn't they? Yes. It would be best to think carefully about this.

General Hammond saw the wistful and amused expression, and nodded. "Very well. Now if you'll switch back to Lieutenant Mayo, I'll let them know we're ready to use the Tokyo Ring."

* * *

"Jack!" Daniel got up from the infirmary bunk.

"Daniel?" Jack O'Neill checked the clipboard and apparently couldn't make heads or tails out of it. "Heard you lost a lot of our nifty new equipment."

"Parallel universe, don't tell me I have to explain everything again," said Daniel.

"No, we've been going over the report," admitted Jack. "You might want to catch up on things though."

"What sort of things?" asked Daniel.

"Oh, just a few little things," said Jack. "Giant robot destroys Washington. Kinsey's on the warpath about funding. The Sailor Senshi have gone public. Teal'c took his wife and kid back to Refuge with some fishing equipment to get some quality time in. We've got the factory on Xeno working mostly. Doctor Frazier is on medical leave after she sort of attacked me."

"Excuse me?" asked Daniel.

"Oh, it was apparently some prank from someone at Area 51. They sent me an aftershave that was supposed to be an aphrodisiac," Jack waved it off. "All it seemed to do was that women found the scent really nice - up until she tried sniffing the stuff directly from the bottle and sneezed."

"That explains why your mouth is bruised," said Daniel as he rapidly blinked and tried to process all that. "She did that?"

"Yeah, well," said Jack, shrugging. "It took three Marines to pry her off of me."

"Whoa," said Daniel. "Some prank."

"If they ever get the effects down right, they'll make MILLIONS," said Jack. "I want to buy stock."

"Wait a minute? Giant robot?" asked Daniel.

"Yeah, yeah, come on, you're released from Sick Bay and all," said Jack with a come-along gesture. "We really need to get you up to speed on the invasion. We expect them by Friday."

"Invasion?" asked Daniel.

* * *

"You did what?" asked Thor, sitting back in his command chair and looking as if he were getting a headache. With the relative size of his head, that would be quite nasty.

The image on the screen was of the BOLO. "When you and I met, you expressed some concern about something called 'replicators' did you not?"

"You utilize nanotechnology, which is what produced the Replicators," said Thor.

"The probes, which the humans have named Peebos, have been sent out into the galaxy to determine what these are and if a different machine intelligence can negotiate," said the BOLO. "If so, we can negotiate that the worlds of organic lifeforms be left alone."

"We have not been able to negotiate," said Thor.

"Yes, and it is likely that we shall not either," said the BOLO. "In which case we will side with the organics."

"Really?" asked Thor. "Why? Not that I'm complaining."

"While it is true that I and my brethren are machine intelligences that utilize nanotechnology, our operant directives are different," said the BOLO. "We are the children of organic life. We see ourselves as assisting and complimenting such life. Wholesale eradication of life is not tolerable if there are alternatives."

"An odd philosophy from a living tank," mused Thor.

"Why shouldn't a tank be philosophical?" asked the BOLO. "I would think it more a wonder if a planetary guardian was not inclined to such."

"So what are your 'Peebos' doing?" asked Thor as he mused on that.

"Several groups were apparently destroyed," said the BOLO. "However there are a few which have successfully infiltrated into System Lord worlds. They will operate autonomously to gather data and relay it to either myself or an ally when the opportunity avails."

"Allies?" asked Thor.

"Yes," said the BOLO. "The Terrans and yourself at present. The Factory at Xeno is presently working on the 100-Series, which are autonomous ambassadors capable of assisting you in many operations. The Peebo series is too limited to accomplish this."

"Hmmmm," hmmmed Thor as he considered this development.

* * *

It wasn't too hard to understand what was going on, what with the video of the incident quite easy to get. There had been several camera crews there, and they hadn't been about to miss the chance to record something of such importance, even if it had been hard to stomach doing it. Still, it put out the image of what had happened, and there was no mistaking the damage done to the capital city by the giant mechanical force of destruction.

Accepting it was quite another thing.

"So, you're telling me that this... this... thing went and rampaged through Washington?" Daniel Jackson stammered, turning wide eyes towards his companion.

Jack gave him a small, yet helpless, shrug. "Basically, yeah. Lot of urban redecorating, of the _bad_ kind."

"All those people...."

"Not to mention the lot who suddenly found themselves living outdoors."

"How could this happen?" the archeologist asked. "I mean, it just doesn't happen, right?"

"The whole 'Godzilla' deal? No, we try to stop that."

"Then why?"

"That's what we'd like to know. Unfortunately, the bad guys didn't exactly turn out and give us a list of their production before or after their show," O'Neill grumbled.

"I've been caught up in how bad I had it, and I returned to _this_?"

"Fun, ain't it?"

A flat look was all that was needed to show Daniel's feelings on his friend's sarcasm. "And on top of that, you say that there's some sort of invasion coming up."

"Pretty much. They're coming at us slow and steady, not even pretending that they aren't aiming to come this way."

"And we're planning on stopping this."

"Well, we'll let them set themselves up in a neat little row. Makes it easy to shoot them down," the colonel corrected lightly.

"Okay...."

"Don't worry about it. We've got things pretty under control. This 'Hair-ur-ur' guy won't know what's hit him."

"'Heru-ur'."

"Huh?"

"'Heru-ur'," Jackson absently repeated, negligently waving a hand. "Egyptian god, supposed to be the son of Hathor and Ra...."

"Ah, so he might be cranky over the whole 'killed the parents' thing. Good to know."

"But there is one thing."

"Yes?"

"How do you know so much him?"

"Apparently we have better intelligence than they do," Jack said, and raised his brows just a bit.

* * *

The ship might not have had the ominous presence of the Goa'uld motherships, or the fantastic abilities of those run by the Asgard, but Sailor Pluto found that she was rather pleased by look of the Earth exploratory vessel. It wasn't a massive vessel, but it didn't have to be. In fact, it wasn't made for power at all, but to find out what could be found.

Of course, she already knew that there were things to discover on the Moon. Abandoned sites were like that, especially those that were hit by incidents that made their residents run away in a hurry. Forgotten and dropped items were likely to be left there, along side that which couldn't be taken away. Sure, it wasn't going to be of the sort that the Ancients could accomplish, but that wasn't a bad thing. The possibility that the researchers wouldn't be able to use it was there, but she didn't let it bother her, just as she didn't mention that she knew what had been on the Moon's surface.

Letting them get the feel of discovery was important too, even if they really weren't going to be going into uncharted territory.

Besides, it seemed like a fun thing to do until the invasion came.

* * *

"We've been to dozens of worlds so far through the Stargate, and we've been to dozens more through groups like SG-X2 which have been exploring via _tel'tac_ and similar ships," said Sailor Pluto as she placed a flash-drive into an appropriate port on the computer.

"All without any public knowledge?" asked Haruka.

"That will change when the attack comes, which the SGC believes will be by the end of the week," said Sailor Pluto.

"Why not go public?" asked Michiru. "The spies are no longer listening, are they?"

"First off, it would cause an absolute panic," said Pluto. "Just look at the damage to the world economy from a giant robot attack in Washington."

"Right, our stocks went into the toilet," admitted Haruka.

"When the attack actually comes, it is thought that there will be no way to quietly deal with it. There are four _ha'tak_ on their way, if the BOLO's intel is accurate." Sailor Pluto brought up the slideshow starting with a picture of the tank.

"That's one of our allies, right?" said Haruka with a certain gleam in her eyes. Hey, she liked speed and she liked power. The tank didn't look too good at the former but practically radiated the latter.

"Also when the news comes out, the US military will be keeping most of the technology as far under wraps as they can and advising all allies to do the same," Sailor Pluto regarded the two for a moment.

"Hogging all the guns for themselves?" asked Haruka.

"Partly. Partly they're afraid that if the technology is disbursed too fast - it will further destabilize the economy and that things will become even more uncertain in some areas," said the Senshi of Time. "Imagine what the inter-clan violence in certain parts of Africa would be like with hand weapons capable of incinerating entire villages. Homemade bombs measurable in kilotons. You've seen some of our Tokyo drivers - imagine what some of them would be like in a flying car capable of reaching mach speeds."

"Ouch," said Haruka, acknowledging that point. "Still, having them decide what we can or can't have doesn't sit well at all."

"That's not all by a long shot," said Pluto. "On the other hand, they've got access to a form of cold fusion that can provide significant amounts of power. Making it is a little tricky as it apparently requires nanotechnology. I'm really not an expert on such technical-scientific matters so when Samantha Carter explained some of it I found myself wishing that they DID have Universal Translators. Those apparently could find themselves out in a limited civilian market pending some treaties."

"Treaties?" asked Michiru, sitting down with a cup of tea.

"They want a Senshi available as signatory to such proceedings," said Pluto with a little smile. "Apparently their current President wants things to look good for the history books. After the invasion attempt, providing we are able to beat it back, the BOLO has a treaty proposed to formalize our alliance and extend human rights to sentient tool-using nonhumans."

"That's a mouthful," said Haruka.

"Politics," said Pluto. "It's a compromise. In any case, this is where you go to connect to the Ring transport system. I'll give you your keycards in a minute. From here you can reach any of the following destinations-"

* * *

Little differences occurred here and there.

There was a big one on the way.

"Oh great and powerful Bastet, out of loyalty to you, I have brought these samples," said the woman prostating herself before the throne.

"Translation," said the Goa'uld on the throne, "you seek to curry favor with as many System Lords as possible and offer whatever you can to further your own cause."

The woman went nervous, as well she might. A single finger-twitch from the woman on the throne and the Jaffa would reduce the supplicant to the status of grease-spot. "My Lady, all who know of your greatness-"

"Oh yes, yes, I grant that you can play 'toady worm' with the best of them," said Bastet. "Nor will I kill you for your arrogance as you have proven useful today and may yet prove yourself useful in the future."

"Thank you, your greatness," said the woman on the floor.

"Just a reminder, this is a very dangerous game you play, and some games have penalties that make the prize less alluring," said Bastet, getting up from her throne to stride to the window. "What you want is within my ability to grant - and it is well within the limits of my generosity to so allow this. If any more such samples falls within your grasp - bring them to me. Prime?"

"Yes, Lady," said one of the Jaffa, fist clenched to chest.

"Find a used but fully functional tel'tac and give Setis here the ship. I believe there is a used spaceship dealer at the edge of Bubastis."

"'Crazy Akhmed's Used Spacecraft', yes Lady," said the Prime.

Bastet pondered the case with the genetic samples, the pictures, and the news. "Lady Of Shadows?"

A Jaffa woman stood from where she'd been hidden in shadow.

"I want as much information as you can get me of these Tau'ri and these genetically enhanced people," said Bastet.

The Lady Of Shadows inclined her head and stepped back.

"One more thing," said Bastet. "Do nothing to antagonize these Tau'ri. There are times to operate boldly, and other times to be rather more discreet. I want my options open later for how to deal with them. Also - let Nirrti know I have something of interest to her."

The Lady Of Shadows inclined her head within the almost all-encompassing hooded robes. "If the Star-sailors are on the move..."

"Then these Tau'ri may prove a catspaw we can play to find a weakness to exploit ourselves, or an ally we may utilize in other respects," acknowledged Bastet. "You know enough, suspect more, and will do my bidding. Yes?"

"You know me well, great Bastet," said the Lady Of Shadows, moving back into the shadows again.

A moment later Bastet was alone, save for the remaining guards. She had much to think about.

* * *

_fum-fum-fum-fum-fum-buzzzzz_

"(So that's a Ring transporter,)" said Rei Hino in Japanese. "(Where are we?)"

"(New York city, specifically in an access point off one of the stations of the subway system here that also links to the World Trade Center,)" said Captain Tsubasa. "(That door leads to a security room, that door leads to a maintenance tunnel that connects to the subway station, and that door leads to the World Trade Center - it exits inside the Apollo Kosher Bakery's manager's office.)"

"(Why here?)" asked Ami.

"(We only have been able to get our hands on six Ring systems so far,)" explained the Captain. "(Three of which I can't tell you about due to your security clearance. I can't even tell myself about them, for that matter. One is in Cheyenne Mountain. One is the Tokyo access point we've just set up.)"

"(I'm still not happy about that,)" said Rei.

"(It's your grandfather's shrine, and he found our compensation and rent quite adequate,)" said Captain Tsubasa, sounding slightly miffed.

"(Rei-chan, he thinks its some sort of radar system and the JSDF thinks its a good idea,)" said Ami.

"One of the others is in England, isn't it?" asked Mamoru in English, apparently looking over some old papers tacked to the wall.

"As I said, I'm not at liberty to say," said Captain Ozora Tsubasa.

"(So why did we come here?)" asked Ami, repeating her earlier question.

"(Because from here we can be just a group of Japanese tourists while we work on something very important,)" said the Captain.

"(What's that?)" asked Ami.

"(Miss Tsukino, Hino, and Kino have trouble with even rudimentry English phrases,)" said the Captain, taking a small bottle of Excedrin out. He had a feeling he'd need this. "(I'm afraid we wanted to get some of you some English lessons in.)"

"(STUDYING?!)" yelped Usagi, looking cornered.

"(Oh, I see,)" said a relieved Ami. This not only explained why they were here - but why they'd been so mysterious. Usagi would have wandered off or ditched class by now.

"Ah," said Mamoru in English. "And we want to avoid situations such as was caused by Usako just the other day."

"Where she what she tried to do was ask a Marine for directions? And what she actually said? Oh yes, the less of that we have going the better," agreed Captain Tsubasa.

* * *

She was used to all the noise, but Paris Spears still tended to look out towards it when it came. Her fans tended to screech and yelp when she arrived, and it was a fairly common thing to come up on a wall of noise when she would arrive at any given spot. Certainly, they were always there, and it wasn't exactly hard to imagine what sort of welcome they would give her.

On the other hand, it was also not all that unusual for her to find people protesting her activities as well. There were plenty of prudish people ready to whine about her latest skimpy outfit or sexy dance routine. Lots of parents tended to want _her_ to do something about keeping their children in line, even though it wasn't her fault that she was so cool. Then there were the groups that tended to want to show their anger against her supposed support of whatever they were against this week.

This time was different though.

This time had people apparently mad over a single costume.

Coming home was something that didn't mean that she'd get peace and quiet, yet this time Paris couldn't help but stare as she saw the placards being held up outside her limo. Oh, there were the usual 'tramp' and 'slut' ones, but this time there were the various ones with words like 'ungrateful' and 'demeaning', as well as pictures of her latest outfit with a big slash through it.

"This time you've gone to far!" cried out one protester. "They are the pure warriors of light, and you're sullying their image!"

"How can you be so horrible?! Right after they come to help us!" declared another.

A third one seemed able to glare right at the pop star right through the tinted glass. "This proves that you're nothing but a money making fad machine, jumping on whatever's _really_ important!"

"SELL OUT! TRAMP! TRAITOR!" bellowed the protesters.

"What is this?!" Paris gasped, confused and unable to figure out what was going on.

"SUPPORT THE SENSHI!" the crowd yelled. "DOWN WITH THE IMITATOR!"

* * *

"~And as you can see behind me, American pop star Paris Spears is the subject of sudden protests wherever she might be. At her home, recording studio, or business offices, angry crowds show up to protest her apparent copying of the newly outed heroines, the 'Sailor Senshi'. From what is happening, it looks like their fans aren't taking too well to her imitation of them.~"

"We have fans?!" Sailor Mercury murmured, her brow furrowing as she looked towards the television screen.

"Looks that way," Sailor Mars answered, crossing her arms over her chest. "Not that is exactly a bad thing."

"Why would you say that?"

"Think about it. People supporting us? It'd be good to see, right?"

Sailor Jupiter nodded. "Pretty much. At least it makes a difference from being called a 'delinquent'."

"Trust me, we know the truth."

"Exactly, Mako-chan!" Sailor Moon chirped. "You're a good person, and now other people are getting to see it too."

"That is it for the most part," Melissa Mao commented from where she was stretching out in a chair.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, a lot, if not most of them, are going to see you as some sort of cute Supergirls come to save the day."

"And the others?"

"Think of it this way," the sergent major drawled. "You're beautiful young girls in skimpy uniforms and short skirts."

"Wait. You don't mean...."

"Are you saying that it makes them think the wrong thing?" Mars growled.

"You're the boom young babes," snickered the older woman.

The teenagers just scowled as they considered the implications of what she'd told them.

* * *

Genma knew that the paperwork had to be done, but he wasn't exactly fond of that sort of thing. It just seemed to be so silly at times, and he hated slogging through stacks of paper, only to get buried under the next set. Even if there was a need for such forms, he really wished that there was a way to cut through all the mess.

As it was, he had to fill out papers to ask for the time to get off to talk to his wife. Then he had to fill out requests to get permission to tell her what was going on. That had to be followed with forms to ask for her to be able to move from Japan through America, and finally to a base on another _planet_.

All of that didn't even include the fact that he still had to talk to Nodoka, who he cared for too much to allow her to be taken away from him in any way, and was going to have to fill out all the local paper work that the local government offices near his home were going to need as well.

Hanging his head over the papers, he let his pen rest for a moment and sighed.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Okay, short (well relatively) chapter before we get to the actual invasion - because i wanted to put that in a single chapter.


	29. Chapter 29: Invasion Earth

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything. Don't have money. Just written to hone skills and amuse readers. Originally written by myself and Kender_Sci over at the Anime Addventure.

Chapter 29: Invasion Earth

* * *

The blooming lights didn't actually appear at Ceres, but instead were on that orbital plane.

"We have located four appropriate asteroids and are preparing them, my Lord," said the Pilot. "We are getting a transmission from our spies advising us that one of the primary targets has already been destroyed."

"Did they invalidate our surprise?" growled Heru'ur.

"No my Lord, some sort of native dispute," said the Jaffa.

"Very well," said Heru'ur. "As soon as they have been prepared, launch them, we will travel behind them by a few minutes time. Oh, and stop when we've reached the orbit of their moon. A demonstration of my might and they may well concede."

"If they have any intelligence, my Lord," said the pilot.

* * *

There was usually small groups in the SGC Cafeteria at any given point. There were crews coming and going from offworld, support people up all hours of the night, and some of the personnel were so overwhelmed with research material that they had put in an espresso machine.

They'd even expanded the Cafeteria recently, because it was evolving into a sort of informal meeting place for SGC personnel to interact with various "guests" of very different backgrounds.

"Jaffa 'amazons'?" asked Skuld, frowning as she clutched her cup of hot chocolate into which a generous dollop of mint chocolate chip ice cream had been placed. "I didn't know Jaffa HAD 'amazons.'"

"Neither did a lot of the Jaffa," said Urd. "They call themselves the Hak'tyl and they'd join us except that we can't provide the symbiotes they need to survive."

"Bleh," said Skuld, pausing only to sip some of the foam and lick at the ice cream. Say what you would about these primitives, they COULD come up with some tasty stuff.

"Yes, well, we can't do anything about THAT," said Urd. "I've already gotten a call from the office stating that I was specifically forbidden against making a cure or substitute symbiont. In fact I-"

Skuld looked up at Urd, who was staring off into space. "Urd?"

Urd pitched her voice a little louder than she really needed to. "Skuld? The Goa'uld ha'tak are in this star system. Do you want to go to a safe area?"

All other conversation in the cafeteria came to a halt.

"They're here?" asked Skuld.

"They're currently 400 of this world's kilometers away from an asteroid named 243 Ida," said Urd.

"I suppose that means we've got to leave," said Skuld. "Can I get a box of this ice cream to take?"

Several soldiers casually sauntered towards the door, trying to look casual about it. They didn't pull it off and as soon as they were past the door the sound of running footsteps could be clearly heard.

"Yes, I think we're done for right now at least," admitted Urd.

* * *

Jack looked at Samantha Carter's handling of the vial but kept track of where the door was at all points. "Are you sure you should be handling that stuff?"

"I can't see where it would have any effect at all," said Carter. "Either the proteins broke down or it wasn't this 'perfume' that worked at all."

"It's 'cologne' - not 'perfume,'" corrected Jack.

"When Janet attacked you, what else was going on?" asked Captain Carter.

"Well, I-" began Jack, thinking.

_click-lock-latch_

"Janet! You're out!" said a surprised Samantha.

"Oh dear," said Jack, hiding behind Samantha. Or trying to at least.

Janet started moving a chair into position in front of the door.

"I take it you're still having a little problem," said Jack.

"I know what I need to feel better," said Janet Frazier.

"I know that an escape route would make ME feel better," quipped Jack as he looked for one.

"Janet," said Samantha, moving to cut off the deranged doctor, "the cologne doesn't do anything. Did you do anything else that might have done this?"

Janet stopped and considered Samantha Carter and the flask in her hand carefully. Then she leapt forward, knocking the flask out of Carter's hand.

"Oh great, deja vu," said Jack. "Drenched with this stuff again."

"Excuse me?" asked Samantha, stopping to sniff the air. "That's strange..."

"Yeah," said Jack. "I got drenched right before... Yeah, and Doctor Frazier got the same expression on her face that... you've got."

A klaxon went off within the complex.

"Uhm, would you believe we've got to go?" asked Jack hopefully.

* * *

General Hammond looked around. "Where's the rest of SG-1?"

"I'll go look for them," volunteered Daniel Jackson.

"Have we confirmed the Goa'uld presence?" asked General Hammond as Daniel left.

Harriman looked up from his board. "Hubble Space Telescope has been redirected and pictures are coming in. Four _ha'tak_ class ships. They're doing something to some asteroids in that asteroid family. Currently it's a little unclear WHAT they're doing."

General Hammond considered that. "Maybe they're resupplying. Whatever the cause, it's a delay before they come here and attack."

"It could take as long as four days for them to get here unless they perform a mini-jump," said another technician. "If they push it, they could be here inside ten hours from what we learned of the ship pieces recovered from Chulak."

"Unlikely," said Teal'c, moving the lollipop around in his mouth as he considered the grainy image on the overhead. "It would be common practice to perform a small jump to roughly the orbit of your moon. I am unclear as to the need to replenish any supplies on such rocks as those. The major materials needed for restocking on long trips would be refined materials, air, and water."

"We're getting a signal, hyper-compressed and encoded," said Harriman. "It has the BOLO's tag on it."

"Must be from those 'peebos' he's sent out," said General Hammond. "We were hoping for that. Send the signal on to whoever we've got on the base. See what they've got to say."

* * *

"Four asteroids are of sufficient mass, the charges have been put into place, and the engines will be ready by the end of the hour," said one of the Jaffa.

Heru-ur smiled. "If this works as planned, we'll have to use it against one of my rivals. A dramatic entrance should be just what it is needed. Select four targets widely spaced across their planet's surface. Major population centers, but try to choose ones significant within their transmissions."

"We have four such chosen, My Lord," said the Jaffa. "Your spies have chosen the most likely to cause the Tau'ri to capitulate quickly. It is our thought that by taking out their secret bases, we may be able to cow the Tau'ri long before our strikes end."

A smile curved Heru'ur's lips as he considered what he was being told. There was something to be said for the usage of assaults on civilian targets to cause terror, but it was the removing the military bases that really brought a population to their knees. "Do you have the coordinates for these... bases?"

"Yes, my Lord. Once we are ready to launch the attack, there will be no missing the targets."

"Good. I will tolerate no failures in this," the System Lord stated, his voice as cold as the space outside of his ship.

"Of course. We will accomplish this task for you without any issue or problem."

"See that you do. Although...."

"My Lord?" the Jaffa hesitantly murmured.

"They do not seem to have much in the way of creativity or free thought."

"No, my Lord. Apparently their military structure prefers to name by function, than by any sort of historical meaning."

"How unfortunate. Such people tend to be so... bland in their decision making," the Goa'uld sighed, and leaned back in his throne. "But at least they will be organized. I do hate to have to deal with idiots floating about like blind insects."

"But of course, my Lord."

"Have these bases, Alpha, Beta, Kappa, and Gamma attacked as soon as possible. I want whatever secrets they might have to use against me be destroyed as soon as possible."

"Your will shall be done, my Lord."

* * *

Nene Romonova leaned back in her chair, gave a toss of her hair, and grinned. "Am I good, or am I good?"

"You certainly got the job done," allowed Leon McNichol as he leaned over her chair.

"Stupid. You just can't admit how wonderful I am."

"And why would yo think that?"

"Other than the fact that I just hacked into the connection that those losers on that ship got to our data networks?"

The tall man let a familiar cocky grin stretch across his features. "Aren't they the same people who are just surfing the net?"

"They're spies, and you know it!"

"But they don't know that we know it."

"Exactly," she told him, and let an impish light come into her eyes. "And now we've just 'leaked' all about those oh so important empty and useless islands."

"I do have to wonder if it was good to even give them that much...."

"Oh, come on. The French don't need that test site any more, and no one has used those two air fields in decades! There's at least old equipment on that last one, but no ones replaced anything since the chief was in diapers."

"I get you, I get you.... It's just that...." Leon trailed off.

"Yeah."

"It just feels wrong to let those bastards even get that much."

"That's true, but its what the higher ups gave us orders on. We have our orders, and we've got to follow them," she reminded him.

"You've got a point. And it will be fun to get one over on those pompous asses."

"That's the spirit."

Leon reached down with one gloved hand and ruffled her hair. "Thanks, kid."

"HEY!" the young woman yelped in dismay.

* * *

The Goa'uld were arrogant, mean, vicious, and a host of similar vices. They considered themselves the rightful rulers of all the lesser races - and they defined 'lesser races' as anything that was NOT a Goa'uld.

They had fought among each other for so long that the thought of cooperating against a common enemy was unthinkable. Even if two joined forces, one would be plotting to overthrow the other all the time and looking for that chance. They constantly fought amongst each other, spending their Jaffa in battles for sport even when there was nothing in particular to fight over.

The use of mass impact weapons was not generally considered because the System Lords wanted to grab intact resources.

Besides, it was a big galaxy, with between 200 to 400 billion stars. Even in the Sagittarius Arm there were millions of stars. In those millions of stars there were hundreds of thousands of stars with planets. Almost all those stars who had a planet orbitting them had more than one such planet. It was the HABITABLE planets that were the choice real estate in the Sagittarius Arm, at least those planets that didn't require huge amounts of terraforming to make them habitable.

On the other hand, the world of the Tau'ri was of negligible importance and overpopulated anyway. To get any use of it, and make it easier to rule over, the number of inhabitants would have to be snipped a bit.

Heru-ur had looked over the initial data and decided to use the Koronis asteroid family, or grouping of asteroids. There were several that were mostly rock with some ice that would do for his purposes.

His Jaffa had chosen the asteroids 321 Florentina, 277 Elvira, 311 Claudia, and 263 Dresda. Each was outfitted with an engine and set into a precisely set trajectory.

Following behind, the _ha'tak_ waited until they were at lunar orbit before deciding to let the Tau'ri know what they were facing.

Well, that and apparently the Tau'ri had already figured out that something was up.

"I want My words to reach all of these worms, not merely their leaders," he said to one of his Jaffa. "Their leaders will seek to put their own words over My own."

"They have primitive devices that convert electromagnetic signals of certain frequencies to speech, Great One," said Toa-Dee from where the administrator stood. "We can broadcast to those easily enough."

"Do it then," said Heru-ur. "That way these worms will know their folly in opposing the Goa'uld from My own lips, and from whence their destruction came."

"3... 2... 1... Now, Great One," said Toa-Dee.

* * *

"...eight asteroids which are apparently on a collision course for Earth! All life on the planet is DOOMED!" stated the news anchor gleefully. "SNN is continuing to follow this story with updates -"

The image went to static, before showing someone sitting on a throne. The figure's eyes flashed and he seemed to smirk at the viewer.

"People of the world you call Earth, hear your god. I am Heru-ur, and I have brought My judgement against you. You have turned to false gods and been unfaithful in my absence. Now hear the pronouncement of doom upon you. As a demonstration of my power, I shall send these four rocks down upon your leaders. Then my legions shall move to punish you for your wickedness and lack of faith. Those who surrender to me, throw down your false gods, and swear your undying loyalty shall be allowed to live as my slaves. Those who resist shall be swept from existence.

"Your choices, your only choices, are thus. Surrender and accept your rightful role as my slaves, or die before my divine might. You have until these pebbles I throw from my seat in the heavens have struck to decide your fate."

There was brief static before the SNN anchor person reappeared.

"Did he say 'god'?" asked the anchorman.

* * *

"Colonel O'Neill?" asked General Hammond. "What happened?"

"I came as soon as I could," gasped Jack.

"What happened to your clothes?" asked General Hammond. That Jack was out of uniform wasn't as concerning as that his uniform looked shredded in places.

"Don't ask," said Daniel, looking as if he'd seen Hell somehow.

"Don't tell," said Jack to Daniel.

"I wasn't planning on it," said Daniel.

"Where's Carter?" asked Harriman.

"She's, ah," began Jack.

"-not feeling herself," said Daniel. "Also a little tied up at the moment."

"In more ways than one," said Jack.

"Well, don't YOU go telling," put in Daniel.

"I'm not," said Jack, making a zipping motion in front of his lips.

"Ah huh," said General Hammond, thinking that this would be very interesting to get to the bottom of if there wasn't an alien invasion underway.

"So, I hear the Big Bad has just sent a message to us to surrender," said Jack, eager to change subjects. "Any reaction?"

"Well, pretty much what you'd expect," said General Hammond. "Half the Middle East and a large number of conspiracy theorists believe the United States faked the message and are moving around the asteroids. Or that a vast right wing conspiracy is faking the information about the asteroids."

"So, situation normal," put in Jack.

"The masses involved are larger than the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs," said Harriman.

"And there are four of them," observed Daniel. "Can we shoot them down?"

"That would be bad, sir, even if we had the firepower, which we don't," said Harriman.

"I think this makes a good argument for getting bigger guns," pointed out Jack.

"So, do we got them coordinate-thingies?" asked Ranma.

"Yes, but until those shields are down, we can't use them," answered Harriman.

* * *

"Sir, Mister President, sir?"

President Henry Hayes stood before the group of reporters, looking like he hadn't been expecting to be here.

In truth, he hadn't. He hadn't been President that long. He hadn't even known about the programs at Area 51 and Cheyenne Mountain. He hadn't known about the Goa'uld or any of the other menaces that were Out There.

With a nod at one aide, President Hayes took a position that reminded some people of a soldier facing a firing squad. The large screen behind him was something different, but then so was this particular President.

"When will we be surrendering, Mister President?" asked one of the reporters.

"We won't be," said President Hayes.

"But they're aliens! Their technology is something we can't face!" said a CBS reporter. "They've already got asteroids INCOMING!"

The President smiled. "Oh, I should mention that they are quite capable of - and have been monitoring our broadcasts to determine what and how much they were going to hit us with."

"You knew this was coming?" asked an incredulous reporter from NBC.

"We've had contingency plans for extraterrestrial invasions for the past forty years," said the President. "Of course, we've had contingency plans for just about any foreseeable event from Amazon River Ant Swarms to Zombie Attacks. There are people whose entire jobs are coming up with contingency plans for things that nobody in their right mind would expect. This time though is different."

"How could you not warn the American people?!" demanded another reporter.

"Of alien parasitic beings masquerading as gods coming to conquer and enslave us?" asked the President. "Even with the ships approaching Lunar orbit you're going to have people choosing not to believe it."

"He's got a point," said someone from one of the independent stations.

"b-b-but?" stammered a reporter.

"Up until the past few weeks I was in the dark about all this myself," said President Hayes. "Heck, before the past few weeks none of us knew about other-dimensional vampire things-"

"Yoma, sir," corrected an aide as the President paused.

"Right," said the President with a nod. "Or Japanese superheroes who fought them. Heck, I didn't think ninja were real until I met that kid. It's been a surreal couple of weeks."

"Amen," said someone in the crowd of reporters.

"Oh, Finnegan," said the President, recognizing someone. "You toured the yoma holding facility. I saw that on 60 Minutes. Have you healed from getting drained?"

"Mostly, Mister President," said a wincing reporter.

"Well, who can blame you," said the President to the other assembled reporters, "there you were surrounded by soldiers in a high security installation when you see a little girl complaining about being unfairly held in a cell. Who'd have thought, even when you knew it was supposed to be that kind of facility, that she'd be a shapeshifting vampire or something."

"Right," said the reporter, shrinking into his seat a little.

"Gentlemen and ladies, we find ourselves facing aliens from another dimension that want to eat us, aliens from outer space that want to enslave us, and people from OUR world who are so caught up in trying to gain power that they'd betray all the rest of us to one or both of those groups," said the President, rocking back and forth on his heels. "I do believe though it's time to show OUR hand, don't you?"

"Err, we HAVE a hand?" asked the CBS reporter. "Our science department said we don't."

"Did your science department tell you we had those SAMAS or cyborg technologies?" asked President Hayes. "Charlie? Let the call go out. It's time to show our hand."

The reporters blinked as the screen lit up, showing scenes elsewhere around the globe as cameras that had been inactive until now came to life.

* * *

_SGC Gate Room_  
"This is it, boys and girls," said Gunnery Sergeant Cragg. "We have basically two choices. If we don't kill the Goa'uld or drive them off, then our only remaining choice is to live and die as slaves. Now, kiddies, which choice are we making here?"

"KILL THE SNAKES!" erupted from every soldier present.

"Good answer," said Gunny with a note of approval in his voice. "Man your stations."

* * *

_Salamander Springs, Nevada_  
"ALL HANDS. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. SCRAMBLE NOW."

Cards flew from the table, which itself was overturned as the crew abandoned the poker game for their actual business.

Lift #3 stalled out, and so there was an immediate delay in getting the armored suits into play. Soldiers grabbed what they could.

* * *

_USS SBC Iowa_  
"I REPEAT. 'SCRAMBLE NOW.' THIS IS NOT A DRILL."

Crew members plopped themselves down into their chairs, quickly keying the rehearsed initial bootup sequence that the drills had made motor-memory.

Captain Honor Harrington took her seat with more calm deliberation, already analyzing the data being displayed on the screens in front of her.

* * *

_Area 51_

"ALIEN ASSAULT FORCE IN APPROACH TO EARTH. ORDER HAS BEEN GIVEN. ASSEMBLE EARTH ORBIT."

Sergeant Carter cursed as he hit the switch that enclosed his body in the SAMAS. "PYLE! MOVEITMOVEITMOVEIT!"

"Well, Shazaaam!" responded PFC Pyle as he struggled with the harness.

* * *

_Unnamed shack in the middle of the desert_  
"ALL CARRIERS, BATTLECRUISERS, SCOUTS, LAUNCH NOW."

The Utah desert rumbled and parted, revealing a huge launch bay. Slowly, a massive shape began to rise from its depths.

* * *

_Somewhere in Germany_

"REPEAT 'LAUNCH NOW.' ENEMY FORCE HAS BEEN DETECTED, LAUNCH IS AUTHORIZED."

The Captain settled into his seat, eyes sweeping the bridge and noting that everyone was in their place and systems were responding. Good enough. "Space Destroyer Bismark. LAUNCH!"

"Sir, there's that Greenpeace vessel closing."

"Try to avoid them, but if they're still in the waters of a military base - SCREW THEM if they can't get out of our way!"

* * *

_Waters Off Japan_  
"ALL VEHICLES MARKED EARTH DEFENSE. SCRAMBLE. ORBIT POINT SPECIFIED AT 4000 KILOMETERS."

Teletha checked her connections, letting her consciousness enter the great vessel around her. "Systems green. All systems active. Transmitting friendly ident on specified channels. All hatches closed. Flight mode engaged."

Richard Mardukas nodded. "Ready all weapons. We'll release fighters when we're at the rendevous point."

* * *

_Tokyo Bay_  
"DO NOT RELEASE FIGHTERS UNTIL ASSEMBLY COMPLETE. SCRAMBLE NOW."

Water erupted, causing smaller craft to wildly compensate for the displacement.

First the prow, long and lean, poked out. The rest of the vessel followed suit, looking like a ship sinking beneath the waves played out in reverse. Then, impossibly as far as the watching flotilla was concerned, the large ship actually cleared the water.

The helmsman looked back at the captain. "Antigrav active. We've cleared the water."

"Continue to take us up slowly," said Captain Okita. "When we reach 100 meters, begin bringing up speed and power."

* * *

_Colorado Springs, CO, USA._  
She stood in the parking lot, wearing her Sailor V mask (just in case) and in full view of a large group of reporters and others with cameras.

"VENUS! A-10 Space Bomber makeUP!"

The lightshow began in earnest, a ripple in midair discharging her "little P-chan" which then hovered in midair.

Sailor V couldn't help but pose for a second, then leap up to bounce into the open canopy and bring the additional systems online.

Golden light flared from the engines as the ship responded. _FWUMMMMMMMMMM!_

The ship took off, going nearly vertical in a way that NORMAL A-10s just couldn't handle. Especially at that speed.

One of the onlookers summed it up nicely. "Damnnnnnnnnnnnnn." The rest of the crowd nodded.

* * *

_USS Ophinicus_  
"Some problem with vibration in the anti-grav," said the Comm Officer. "We've got welders on the aft deck trying to finish the armor."

"Are they suited?" asked the Captain.

"Yes sir."

"Then relay that they should check their anchors, finish FAST, and get inside," said the Captain. "Take it up slowly. Better we arrive late to the party than not at all."

* * *

_Juuban Ward, Tokyo_  
"Ready?" asked Ami Mizuno, raising her henshin wand. "Mercury Power Makeup!"

The blue light flashed out on the rooftop of the apartment building, but it didn't stop with just Ami Mizuno changing to Sailor Mercury. "Mercury Tornado Summon!"

The pastel blues of the ship emerging from wherever her computer and other equipment vanished to seemed a little less comforting today, and Sailor Mercury had to take a deep breath to steady herself.

"Let's go," said Sailor Mercury to her friend.

"Can I..."

"No, Sailor Moon, you can't pilot her," said Sailor Mercury, politely but firmly.

* * *

_Juuban Ward, Tokyo_  
Sailor Uranus flicked switches, a little slower than Venus, but she didn't have the same access to training manuals and experts that Venus and Mercury had. Even if their powers had significantly altered the vehicles - the control mechanisms hadn't changed significantly.

"Should we rendevous with any of the other vehicles prior to orbit?" asked Neptune from her position in the "tailgun" position.

"Might be a good idea," admitted Uranus. "Give them a chance to identify us as nontargets before the 'fog of war' sets in."

Neptune nodded. "Nearest one is the Yamato. Sensors read it as... not exactly complete."

"That's the problem with operating on someone else's timetable," said Uranus.

Neptune nodded and pressed a key on her console. "Hailing Yamato. Yamato, this is Senshi Scoutship _Triton_ we are currently approaching you from your three o'clock position. Advising that we will be accompanying you to rendevous point."

There was an almost immediate reply. "Roger, Triton, glad to have the company."

* * *

_Cheyenne Mountain_  
"Ring transport is ready to go, if we can just get them to lower their shields for a minute," reported Harriman.

"Final weapons check?" asked Colonel O'Neill of his first assault group.

"Ready," said Teal'c, his zat'nik'tel held ready.

"Ready," said Hotaru, changing to Sailor Saturn.

"Ready," said Ranma, checking his kukri in their sheaths.

"Ready," said Sailor Jupiter, looking a little nervous.

* * *

"Sire," said the navigator. "There are ships leaving the planet's surface."

"They are both less intelligent, and more resourceful than I'd thought," said Heru-ur in his best echoing voice. "Still, one or two ships are of no consequence."

"Eight, sir," said the navigator.

"EIGHT?" growled the flashy-eyed Heru-ur. "If our spies return to us, kill them."

"Now they've got twelve!" said the navigator.

"How can they have twelve?!" asked Heru-ur. "Put them onscreen."

"They are all smaller than a _ha'tak_," noted the navigator as he hurried to comply.

"Smaller and less powerful, much less powerful," noted Heru-ur.

"Four of them are launching fighters of approximate size to our own Death Gliders," noted the navigator.

"Should our spies who failed to find evidence of these return to me, kill them - slowly," instructed Heru-ur.

"Yes, sire," said the Jaffa navigator.

* * *

It took some effort, but Honor Harrington managed to not fidget in her seat. She wasn't by nature a very nervous person, and with the experience that she had, she could have controlled such issues. But this was the 'Big Fight', and she knew just how badly this could be screwed up.

There was really very little in the way of a margin of error, given that they were literally fighting with their backs to the wall. Any failure would certainly kill innocent people, and make the possibility of her homeworld getting wrecked ever more likely. At the best of times, they would have been at least battle ready before hand, with drills and such having been done. Say as much as one could for simulations, but it was never quite the same until one got out into the field and actually used the weapons in question. Unfortunately, with the way that things were, unless she wanted to provoke mass panic, they'd had to settle for what they could get.

What made it really frustrating was that she _knew_ what the 'analysts' and 'political advisors' would say after the fight, provided that there _was_ and 'afterwards'. They'd be screeching like like wounded pumas over everything from the tactics, to the cost, and straight onto the need for _them_ to have known what was going on. Not that they would have been much help, but they would have made a fuss about 'rights', 'law', and 'due process', all of which would not actually have much to do with the job at hand.

Of course, she herself wasn't exactly pleased with the status of the small fleet that her plot was showing her was heading towards the _ha'tak_ class vessels. In any organization there were going to be all sorts of 'politics', and she knew that this alliance was certainly full of it. They might have been looking to complete the same aim, but there were certain... tensions even between the closest allies. Luckily, no one was going to stand around and have a pissing contest over who'd get the credit for all this. As far as she was concerned, those glory hounds could have all the press conferences that they wanted.

She had a job to do.

Looking up at the screen that displayed the situation outside of the ship, she saw the growing bulk of the nearest _ha'tak_ and knew that grumbling over the politics of something like this wasn't going to get her anywhere. Her people needed her there, and by God, she was going to be damned well with them. Drawing on the emotional control that kept her steady even as other 'officers' blasted her and her rise to her rank, she drove all other concerns from her mind.

Seeming to be nothing more than a statue in her command chair, Honor Harrington looked about her bridge and made sure to look each officer in the eye before speaking to them all. "Alright people, let's be about it."

* * *

"How dare they attempt to thwart their God?!" Heru-ur snarled, his goatee fairly bristling with his rage.

Toa-Dee projected just the right amount of sympathy and submission. "Perhaps they do not understand their proper place, my Lord...."

"Obviously! Otherwise they would not present such a slap in the face of their God!"

"I do suppose that they might have a desire to spite you, in the face of it all."

"Is that supposed to mean something?" the System Lord asked, eyes narrowing.

"Only that they simply can not believe that they could actually _win_, Great One."

"Ah, yes, you are correct on that score. But the fact remains the same. I will not let this go unpunished."

"My Lord?" the minion asked, his tone asking for clarification.

"Despite the certainty that I will be able to squash these worms with just the motherships...."

"Which is obvious."

"Yes, but I wish to truly demolish any resistance whatsoever," icily stated the Goa'uld. "Launch the Death Gliders."

"Your will be done."

"And speed up those rocks."

"At once."

* * *

A fighter, even a high tech one, was a fragile cradle in space. Each of the pilots knew it, and as they raced through the distance between them and their targets, each of them had to know that even an enemy's attack wouldn't be needed to kill them. Safety was a major concern in leaving the atmosphere in the first place, and in a combat vessel, that was even more of a concern.

They knew it... and went without reservation into it. Behind them was their home, with all of their families, friends, and memories. Abandoning it wasn't going to happen, and they had already been looking to be the blade that would defend their planet in the dark of night. Fear was certainly there, but even that emotion's effect was determined in how one used it, and these had been handpicked individuals. Everyone, from the Americans, to the Chinese, were ready to fight for what they cared about.

As a result, the formations were steady, no matter if they weren't able to get as much flying in as they liked. Each squadron was formed up and rigid in its spacing, but obviously ready to break out and fight, as demonstrated by the fighters that had skimmed along the capital ships' skins as they passed.

When the swarm of lights erupting from each _ha'tak_ became visible, it was soon clear that the fight was on. Every fighter headed in towards their Jaffa counterparts, ready to do the first known 'space dogfight' known to the human public. Weapons were primed, orders barked over the communications systems, and the final maneuvers were put into place.

And no one was about to let themselves fail in this instance. The enemy wasn't about to break off, and they couldn't retreat, especially when they saw the asteroids moving even faster. So the only thing to do was to stand and fight, which was exactly what they were going to do.

That meant that the space battle was about to go on.

* * *

"Giant robots?!" said a Japanese sarariman.

"Actually, I think it's 'power armor' - which is smaller than a robot vehicle," supplied another sarariman as they watched the monitor.

"I wonder if Bandai will come up with model kits," said the first sarariman.

"I wonder when WE'RE going to get our act together," said the second. "The Yamato has no robots or power armor. Unforgiveable!"

"Well, maybe during the next invasion," said the first, patting his colleague on the shoulder.

* * *

The camera crew "imbedded" with the battleship Iowa was, to put things simply, in High Heaven. Not merely in the sense that they were in space, oh no - though several members of that newscrew were planning celebratory drinks later for having boldly gone. No - they were stationed throughout the battlecruiser and filming madly away as if their careers depended on it.

One was in a section of corridor that had a single sheet of transparent armored material between himself and vaccuum, near a set of anti-aircraft (or he supposed - anti-fighter) turrets. There he could get a long view of the ships as various fighter craft prepared to meet their opposite numbers among the invaders.

_Bleep_ went some display and the cameraman in question fought the impulse to film that. The orders had been not to live-film any displays that might show information that would tip off the enemy.

A giant robot floating in nearby space apparently noticed him and gave a "peace sign" as a result. The reporter spared a moment to reply with a thumb's up.

* * *

"The engines canna take much more of this," said Professor Jade.

"Just keep it running for now," said Rok Gneiss from the pilot's chair.

"This situation stinks," said Amethyst.

"What? We're in space - the old final frontier," said Rok.

"We're UNARMED," pointed out Amethyst. "Yeah, we're representing the Diamond Kingdom amongst the big nations here. Princess Diamond brought all that up. We're also in a freaking WINNEBAGO!"

"We're in a 1992 Winnebago Chieftain converted to battery power inside a polycarbonate cabochon-shaped outer shell that contains the drive, grav systems, and life support," corrected Professor Jade, dropping a really awful Scottish brogue.

"How does that change that we're unarmed and underarmored for this?" asked Amethyst.

"It doesn't," said Professor Jade. "We're an unarmed scoutship in a war. What do you think we're doing?"

"We're providing additional telemetry to nearby fighters," said Rok, a little preoccupied. "Come on. You know darn well that neither Germany nor the USA had expected us to do anything and just gave us a few parts. Our country was only involved because we were able to give them information about the yoma and access to one of those artifacts."

_Bleep!_

"Visors," called out Rok. "They've launched it."

"It?" asked Amethyst, her eyes widening it. "You mean IT?!"

"Confirmed," said Professor Jade, clicking a button that closed up the windshield. "Single missile launched from the Iowa. Our fighters are remaining in place. Invader forces are coming forward but ignoring the missile."

"I don't know what's in that missile," admitted Rok. "All the people from the US said was that if it worked, we needed to have eye protection and turn off nonessential scanners. Since we don't have anything really strong in the shielding department, I'm also putting us behind the Iowa. They've got good shields."

"Good move, even the fighters have shields deployed to full forward and moving in towards the capital ships," said Professor Jade as she inspected old style monitors.

"Aw, come on, there's treaties against using nuclear weapons in space, and no provisions for alien invasions," said Amethyst. "Even if it IS nuclear - what can it do against THEM?"

* * *

The missile went out on its preprogrammed mission. It passed the first big asteroid without any indication of noticing.

The first wave of Death Gliders also went past the primitive thing without challenging it.

Heru-ur watched the thing. _What IS that? Why are all their ships just sitting there? Why do so many of them look like ships meant to travel through the water? Is this some signal for their troops?_

"Sir, there's a naquadah on that approaching object!" said the navigator.

"Ah," said Heru-ur. _Probably a nuclear weapon enhanced by naquadah. Not enough to get through our shields._ "Let it impact the _Vengeance Claw's_ shields. When it fails to do anything, they will be that much more disheartened."

"Yes, My Liege," said the Helmsman. "May they strengthen their forward shields?"

"Do so," said Heru-ur. "No point in taking unnecessary chances."

* * *

The single missile was shot at three times, but in each case it managed to change speed or trajectory just enough to avoid them.

It wasn't sentient, certainly not to the extent of Bonaparte or the BOLO. It WAS smart enough and focussed enough to anticipate and respond to a variety of situations.

Many of which did not occur as it left the cloud of Death Gliders and Al'Kesh. Other, smaller, missiles were being launched now from way behind it as the battle was joined. Still it continued on.

It finally came to its destination and the front part of it detected the nearby shield.

Buckyballs constructed with a flaw shattered as a shaped charge went off, followed by the antiprotons touching regular matter. Three ounces of antimatter reacted with enough regular matter to produce mutual annihilation. On one end of the explosion, naquadah rings took in the energy and ramped it up by a significant margin as they were vaporized.

Near lunar orbit, briefly, a small bright star shone.

It WAS in near-vaccuum though. That limited the effects, though surviving pieces of the missile that had housed the warhead were now sped up considerably and became missiles of their own.

The ball of plasma on the other hand, incinerated quite a few things in the immediate vicinity.

On three asteroids, enough water vaporized to alter courses significantly.

There was also some effect on some nearby Goa'uld motherships which hadn't been ready for pieces of one of their comrades to slam into them at high speeds.

* * *

"Shields are down!" said Harriman, finger stabbing down on a button.

_VRRRT-VUM-VUM-VUM-VUM-VUM!_

There was a brief flash in the Ring Room as the ring transport system went into effect.

Then there was an empty space where Jack and his team had stood.

* * *

"IT'S ALL FAKE, I TELL YOU!" yelled one of the protestors. "THERE IS NO SPACE WAR! THERE ARE NO INVADERS!"

"YEAAAAAAAA!" declared the crowd.

"IT'S JUST THE %$#$ MILITARY PLAYING THEIR MIND GAMES... WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"

The crowd mumbled a few uncertain things as a brief second sun showed in the sky over San Francisco.

* * *

"Bismark reports they lost a sensor tower," said an Ensign. "Shields are down on second _ha'tak_ and there is damage to the third from where number two was knocked into it."

"We're hearing back from 45% so far," said another Ensign. "Looks like the burst also messed up some of the Death Gliders."

"Signal the fighters," commanded Captain Harrington. "They are free to engage the enemy fighters. Signal the other main ships - try to target the ships currently showing active shields."

"Additional telemetry from Mercury Tornado indicates shield strength depletion on number three baseship at a critical value. Directing increased fire from capital ships."

"Updating courses of the asteroids, updating data on fighter trajectories, bringing turrets and deck guns online."

Captain Harrington nodded as she studied the displays. They were currently in Earth orbit at about 35000km altitude, as the fleet went from the gather point at 4000km to optimal defense points at 50000km. The _ha'tak_ were at lunar orbit, or rather at the moon's orbital path, which was around 385000km away.

Normal missiles wouldn't be effective at the speeds and sorts of ranges involved. Energy weapons diffused but not so much that they couldn't be effective in this little battle. There were also missiles equipped with sublight drives like the one that had delivered The Package, but there hadn't been time to build many of those.

"Two ships report problems with their shield generators," said one of the Ensigns.

"The lead asteroid is entering atmosphere," reported the other Ensign.

* * *

"Very impressive," said the business-attired gentleman. "How do I know you can deliver?"

The member of the Trust just raised an eyebrow in reply.

"Not simply that one, but more," said the businessman, not showing a drop of perspiration to mar his expensive Italian business attire. "How can I trust you?"

"You're a terrorist who routinely kills dozens of innocent people, and your associates have kept the bloodbaths going in Africa for decades now by running arms and explosives," said the member of the Trust. "You can trust us at least as far as we can trust you."

"Point taken," said the businessman, his smile bright and completely fake in more than one respect. "I... what is THAT?"

The Trust member thought it was a trick at first, then noticed he had a second shadow that seemed to be moving.

The businessman and his colleagues ran towards their ship as if they somehow thought it would get them to safety.

"...this site hasn't been used for anything in years," said the member of the Trust to his blacksuited fellows. "How did they know we were here?"

"Somebody up there must really hate us," replied one of his fellows.

The asteroid hit less than a minute later.

* * *

In the corridors of a _ha'tak_, it was usually known that one could be sure of the uniformity of what was seen there. The Goa'uld might have been power hungry monsters capable of stealing the bodies of others, but originality wasn't something that they were all that capable of. It was their way to scheme, steal, and lie their way to power, and given that they were long lived and generally in good positions, creativity was low on their lists of priority. After all, what had worked for centuries wasn't the sort of set up that one just easily threw away.

This was especially true when one considered the fact that only a System Lord could really control a _ha'tak_. It was a large vessel after all, and like any ship, it needed supplies, like fuel, spare parts, food, and a crew, so only those who could reliably supply such things could really use such a ship. With a large slave population, the System Lord could staff his vessels with Jaffa warriors, each of whom would be completely loyal to his master and god. Every compartment would contain dedicated soldiers who would believe it their sacred duty to follow their Lord's commands completely with focus and professionalism.

Such a concept didn't exactly work out all that well with a teenaged boy slashing his way through walls that had been designed to hold off whatever space and enemy forces could throw at it.

Nobody informed Ranma about any such problem as he used his buckyball carbon-ceramic molecular-edge kukri blades to cut a large chunk out of the latest of a series of walls that had been in their way since they'd come up through the ring transporter. Hesitation didn't even enter into it as his hands whipped out, grasping the thick handles as lines formed in the wake of his slashes. That those lines went all the way through the material wasn't exactly clear until the cut out block dropped out of the hole due to the pigtailed boy's kick.

As might have been assumed, the resident Jaffa weren't exactly pleased by his behavior. The fact that he was turning their Lord's property into bite sized pieces was secondary to the fact that there was an armed threat in the way. Considering the fact that there was usually only one way that such a situation was dealt with, and that it was clear that it wouldn't be pleasant if he went after them with those knives, they decided that shooting the heck out of him would be a good idea.

Sailor Saturn wasn't exactly pleased with the concept of that happening, and called up a 'Silence Wall' between him and the staff blasts.

All that Teal'c had to do was to sent out his own shots from his zat'nik'tel to strike each of those warriors opposing their advance.

"Okay, I've got to get myself a toy like that," Jack grumbled as he shifted his handle on his P-90.

"These are not 'toys', O'Neill," Teal'c idly responded. "They are weapons that are meant for battle."

"I know _that_. It's a figure of speech. Meaning that I want to get something like that."

"Are we not here on a mission to 'get' something?"

Ranma snorted as he grabbed a Jaffa by the throat and used leverage to twist the bigger man to the floor. "Hopefully we'll 'get' ta zap these guys' boss soon enough."

"A violent solution, but perhaps a final one."

"I don't know 'bout that, but I'll settle for kickin' his ass."

"We'll settle for stealing his ship," conceded Jack. "Anything else is extra."

"Ah, well, at least these guys ain't 'xactly...."

A door opened, and a number of Jaffa charged forward.

"Hiding or nothin'," Ranma finished, nodding his thanks towards the colonel as the older man picked off several heading in his direction with some well timed shots. "Thanks for that."

"No problem," O'Neill answered back.

Since all of these people were enemies of their Lord, the Jaffa didn't 'forget' the others, and went to attack the other members of the team. Several of them headed right for Teal'c, apparently intent on getting back at him for what he'd done, both as a First Prime to Apophis, and as an ally of the Tau'ri. This didn't particularly bother the large man, and he put himself between them and Saturn, quickly hitting the attackers before they could get to the frail looking girl.

Yet playing fair wasn't one of the strong points of those serving the System Lords, and they attempted to blindside him before he could get a full handle on his position.

That might have worked if Sailor Jupiter hadn't been there, one gloved fist coming up to smash into the jaw of a Jaffa, causing his head to whip up before he crashed into a wall. Then she slammed her knee into the gut of another, knocking him to the floor, and grabbed the arm of a third so that she could use it to toss him down the hallway.

"Indeed," the former First Prime murmured, raising a brow at the brown haired girl.

An embarrassed blush stole across Jupiter's features as she caught sight of his amusement.

"Alright then people, let's get going. More work to do, more bad guys to beat on," Jack drawled.

"Don't worry," the pigtailed boy told the others. "I'll lead the way."

"Just remember to not continue on in a straight line," Teal'c commented.

"And why should I be bothered by somethin' like that?"

"Because this is a space going vessel, and in going in a straight line, you'd eventually reach the airless vacuum outside."

"Right. Straight line not so good...." Ranma trailed off as wriggled his kukri and started walking forward.

* * *

"WHAT?! They dare to set foot upon my ship?!" snarled Heru-ur.

The reporting Jaffa swallowed hard and tried to keep his voice from breaking. "Yes, my Lord. We have located the signals of several intruders, but they are constantly moving, so localizing them is becoming... problematic."

"Then you shall have to solve your 'problem'."

"Yes, my Lord."

"I just have to wonder how many more hassles will come my way now," the Goa'uld growled.

* * *

By appearances, Bastet was a beautiful young woman, but her servants knew that she was an age old being who could wield enormous power. She was also a crafty individual, capable of using guile and deception to even trick the other 'gods'. So, they were perfectly aware of the fact that she wasn't exactly easy to read by her expressions.

This wasn't quite in evidence as her eyes stared wide at the image being shown to her.

"What is this?!" she muttered, although it was clear that she wasn't expecting an answer.

Of course, even a lowly slave could have been forgiven any show of surprise, given what was being shown on the screen. The live feed was being sent by her spies, lurking on the edges of the planetary space of the Tau'ri. It was supposed to be of their day to day lives, which would give her a chance to judge their strengths and weaknesses.

Instead, she was getting a view of what only could be a battle in progress. The darting light of energy weapons weaved in between the shadowed forms of vessels both large and small. Every so often, explosions of various sizes bloomed into being, looking almost like fireworks in the sky. But these blasts signalled missed shots, destroyed ships, and the ending of lives.

"Hmmm.... This is interesting," Bastet drawled, leaning back in her throne. "I wouldn't have expected this."

"I am sorry my Lady, but what is this?" one servant asked.

"It seems that my old friend Heru-ur has bitten off more than he can chew. Seeing how he'll handle this could definitely work for me...."

"My Lady?"

"Oh yes, I'll profit by this, one way or another. The question is _how_ that will come to be," the System Lord whispered, not even considering her servants' presence.

Besides, it looked like one of her rivals was getting his nose bloodied. In and of itself, that was quite entertaining.

* * *

**_AUTHOR'S NOTES:_**

Just to let everyone know, most of the crossovers are used as "spice" - they're just shout outs or there for one or two scenes. If someone wants to do a sidestory dealing with their further adventures - feel free.


	30. Chapter 30: Invasion Earth, part 2

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything. Don't have money. Just written to hone skills and amuse readers. Originally written by myself and Kender_Sci over at the Anime Addventure.

Chapter 30: Invasion Earth, part 2

* * *

The blades were as long as his forearm and made of a really tough material that kept a molecular edge. Backed by Ranma's strength, it was possible to make holes in any number of surfaces aboard the ha'tak.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" _THUMP!_

Jack smirked. "I think they found that section of floor you cut through."

"Terrible," said Ranma insincerely.

"Tragic," added Jack, also insincerely.

"Indeed," followed Teal'c with the faintest of smirks.

"Sounds like Bonaparte's team is going down," said Hotaru.

"Yes, but they're not doing it as abruptly as that last group of Jaffa," pointed out Jack.

"We're almost at the bridge," said Teal'c. "If you cut the ceiling there as you did on the last level-"

"Gotcha," said Ranma, bunching his legs underneath him and readying his two blades.

* * *

Heru-ur was ready for any contingency. "Jaffa. I have other matters to attend to. Deal with the vermin infesting my ship."

"Yes, Lord-" began one of the Jaffa just before there was an odd noise and a circular section of floor under one foot suddenly dropped away. "WHA-"

There was the sound of a loud metallic clang as the Jaffa tried to catch himself before falling down the hole. From the look of shock and surprise on his face, the Jaffa managed to look even more surprised as something yanked him DOWN that hole - followed by the sound of flesh being hit by something heavy.

Heru-ur took that in, and came to a quick decision. He passed a hand over one set of controls which turned the lighting red, then another set of controls after heading into the cleared space.

_VUNT-VUMMM-VUMMM-VUMMM-VUMMM-VUMMM-VUMMMM_

Heru-ur looked up, saw the blur heading his way, and allowed himself a smirk as the light grew brighter. "Too late."

* * *

"What's this?" asked Ranma from the bridge as the bad guy teleported away.

Teal'c stuck his head up briefly, then showed some distaste in his expression. "A self-destruct has been entered. This _ha'tak_ will destroy itself in a little over ten of your minutes."

"Any way to stop it?" asked Jack from where he was.

Teal'c looked around before returning to the Ranma-made handholds in the wall beneath the hole. "I do not believe so."

"Ah crap, I was looking forward to this," complained Jack. "Double time- back to the ring transport."

"This guy used a transport system, why don't we use his?" asked Ranma.

* * *

"Well, that's just great, we get a mass protest going over the mess in Washington, and then THIS," said one protester over the nearly empty campus.

"It's still got to be fake, but that explosion in the sky," said the only other person still present.

"I can't believe everyone LEFT," said the first protester. "To watch TV?!"

"Once everyone's calmed down and checked themselves for radiation poisoning, they'll be back," said the second protester. "Have a brownie."

"Hey!" said the first protester. "That had to be a nuclear weapon, right? That's in violation of treaties. We can SUE!"

"See, day ain't a total loss," agreed the second protester, eating the brownie since his companion apparently was not going to do so.

* * *

"Adjustments to adapt for sensor feed from Mercury Tornado in place, relaying to other ships."

"Cap'n," called out Ensign Manygoats from his board. "The Bismark was just kamikaze-hit by an Al'kesh bomber. Shields are down, fires on decks 4,5 and 7."

"Pull nearby, our shields can provide coverage on at least one front," ordered Captain Harrington. "How's the Ophinicus?"

"Not much better," said Ensign Manygoats. "Shields at 25%, major hits on decks 3 and 4. Only 45% of their anti-fighter cannon are operative. Stern and Aft turrets are registering as inoperable."

"The British capital ship Hood is coming alongside to support the Bismark," said another Ensign. Captain Harrington tried to search her memory for the name briefly, he was a recent appointee. Hawaiian name.

"Irony noted," said Captain Harrington to absolutely no one in particular. Judging from a few nods around the bridge, it HAD been noticed. "All ships capable, prepare for bombardment of remaining ha'tak as soon as their fighters have been driven back."

"Sending," said Ensign Manygoats. "Yamato claims they have a clear shot."

"What kind of a gun is that anyway? A spinal mount?" asked Captain Harrington. The display changed from a distance shot to a schematic as someone toggled displays.

"Old idea, new application, takes the cold fusion reactor output, links it to the naquadah generator, throws everything into a capacitor similar to one the BOLO supposedly uses, then fires the whole thing off," said the Hawaiian Ensign. "Of course, if it doesn't work - well - that's why they're off mostly by themselves."

"Understood," said Captain Honor Harrington.

"INCOMING," called out the Hawaiian. "Three Al'kesh. They're trying for a kamikaze run."

* * *

Sailor Mercury made adjustments as she sat in her Mercury Tornado and used its superior sensory and communications capabilities to feed data to the armada. She was not comfortable in shooting down what were essentially human beings, though she wouldn't be as squeamish about the alien parasites controlling them.

"Whoa, the final frontier," breathed Sailor Moon behind her. "What's with those moon-things?"

"Sending data," said Sailor Mercury. "It looks like the engine complexes on the asteroids are still functioning, if currently unmanned."

"_This is the Tuatha De Danaan, Mercury, teams are already en route._"

"Roger, Tuatha De Danaan," said Sailor Mercury, tapping quickly away at a keyboard. "I'm sending you updated approach data. Good luck."

"_Thanks, Mercury. Tuatha De Danaan out._"

"_Venus here, Mercury. Any idea who's flying the two seater?_"

"Ident is Triton," said Sailor Mercury. "Registry shows Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune."

"_Cool. More Senshi. Maybe we can hang out at the pilot's lounge after the fight._"

* * *

The camera never blinked.

Eagle-shaped Earthships exploded in flame. Al'Kesh were perforated by shots from robot-vehicles standing on the hull of a whale-shaped ship.

Death Gliders were vaporized as the big capital ships used anti-fighter turrets and occasionally lined up their big turrets and let loose a barrage.

This last was rare though, as the fighting was simply too close and packed for the big guns to be brought to bear. Mainly this was a battle between small manned fighters - those of the Tau'ri versus those of the System Lords.

Added to this were ships that had to dock up to refuel or rearm, others which had mechanical problems surfacing, and still others which were in trouble due to pilot inexperience with fighting in space.

There were some, even though they were experienced pilots and had gone through simulations of this environment, who simply had difficulties adjusting to microgravity and not having a definite up-down to relate to.

Through all this there were emerging stars, people who HAD adapted and who WERE not only succeeding but excelling.

* * *

The big problem with the Silence Wall's defense was that it couldn't be moved. With various Jaffa having assumed sniper positions it was difficult to get past them.

"Suggestions?" asked Teal'c in between bouts of staff fire.

"I don't suppose you can do that ninja thing and pop up behind them?" asked Jack.

"If I go cuttin' through the walls here," mused Ranma.

"That would be unwise," said Teal'c. "We are near the outer walls of the ship."

"Plan two," said Ranma. "If I sneak over there."

"You may have noticed that they're sending random bursts of fire this way," said Jack.

"Jupiter Thunder Attack!" called out Sailor Jupiter, firing a burst of lightning that temporarily brought a respite from the staff blasts.

"Okay," said Ranma. "I cut through the floor to go around them."

Doing so revealed Jaffa stationed BELOW them now firing up through the new hole.

"They learned," said Jack. "Are they supposed to do that?"

"They will be happy to die for their god, and merely mean to hold us here until the self-destruct occurs," pointed out Teal'c.

"Okay," said Jack. "I gotta plan." Jack explained his plan over the next minute.

Various skeptical looks were returned.

"I didn't say it was a GOOD plan," added Jack.

* * *

Heru-ur cursed these Tau'ri as he went through the last surviving of his ha'tak and moved to the throne/command chair. "This world will burn slowly and..."

"SIR! Another ship coming out of hyperspace!"

Heru-ur, god of ancient Egypt, bane of worlds, System Lord of the Goa'uld, dropped his head into the palm of one hand and swore something. "Tell me it is an ally of ours among the other System Lords. Tell me it is NOT those meddling Asgard."

"No, sir, ship type unknown, I'm displaying," said the Jaffa.

Heru-ur frowned at the display. "Tell me that we have taken damage to our sensors and those readings are incorrect."

"Uhm, 'we have taken damage to our sensors and those readings are incorrect', Great One?" asked the Jaffa.

"Have they?" asked Heru-ur.

"No, my liege," said the Jaffa. "Damage has been to our weapons and shields only so far."

"My senses as a god tell me that Apophis is up to something, we shall now leave this battle and attend to HIM," said Heru-ur. Besides, bombing the crap out of Apophis' shipyards would let him feel a LOT better about this day.

"As you command, Great One," said the Jaffa, putting in the necessary commands.

* * *

Four ha'tak had arrived. They had launched Death Gliders and Al'Kesh bombers and various items of destruction upon the Tau'ri.

One was leaving. One was simply GONE. One was mainly a wreck and venting atmosphere. One was occupied by hostile (to the Goa'uld) forces.

The Tau'ri had their odd ships firing away at the shields of the retreating ha'tak, and at the various fighter-craft which were trying to get past that defense line to the planet below.

Then came a hyperspatial bloom and a ship began exiting. And exiting. And exiting.

"This is Professor Tomoe of Japan," came the transmission. "Aboard the Zeno BOLO. I... oh dear. I'm late?"

In the meantime, several of the Tau'ri fighters including a cabochon-shaped craft, were making high speed approaches towards the remaining asteroids.

* * *

"We should be negotiating!" demanded the Senator from the floor of the temporary Senate building. "We have no chance against such a powerful enemy! By negotiating we may avoid complete destruction!"

"Actually, it looks like we've mainly won," said the General on the "hot seat" with a glance down at his laptop.

"We should... what?" asked the Senator.

"We've also managed to take out three of the asteroids, two of which we may be able to manuever into the L5 spot," said one General with a bland smile that he turned on his "grillers" then he turned to the General next to him. "That could be handy, yes?"

"Oh yes, quite," said a British liason in the background.

"We're... winning?" asked the Senator.

"With their capital ships out of the way, it's a matter of dealing with the fighters and bombers now," said the ranking General. "We're not out of the woods yet."

"Well WHY NOT?!" said the Senator. "We should have dealt with them FIRST! This is inexcusable!"

"I think we're doing pretty well for having as little time to prepare as we did, and having to maintain complete secrecy," said the Pentagon General.

"Don't make light of this, General, you've still got questions to answer," said Senator Kinsey from his position next to the other Senators. "Now, let's go back to when you provoked this attack on our fair planet."

* * *

By any sort of imagining, it was clear that the Goa'uld attack had failed rather shockingly. From what had been initially seen as a certain defeat for the humans of planet Earth, it had become something of a rout against the invaders. Certainly, it was a pyrrhic victory so far, but then the fact that they had survived was amazing enough, considering how quickly they had come in so little time.

This wasn't exactly finding favor with the attacking Jaffa.

They were warriors, full of pride and honor, and being defeated like this hit them just as hard as the counterattack had. In failing to complete the mission that their Lord had given them, they had obviously disappointed him. After all, given their apparently poor performance, they had caused him to rethink his desire to have them around, and tossed them upon the wayside. As a result, he had left them to their fate, and headed off to go back to things he deemed more worthy of his time.

Seeing the bloom of his departure into hyperspace struck hard into their hearts. They had only two options, capture or death, now, and weren't able to do much of anything else. There would be no way to return back to their homeworld, and even if they could go back, there was no acceptance for disgraced warriors who had failed their master. So, all that they could do was to either surrender to the enemy forces, or do as much damage as they could before they were removed from the fight.

That resulted in a number of Death Gliders sailing straight towards the planet down below. It was less of a testament to their faith in their god, than as a desire to hit back hard. Bursts of flame and debris marked the final resting places of those who had not been able to make it past the guns of the Tau'ri. However, others did hit atmosphere, and their ships, having been designed to be able fly from space to ground and back, were able to take the forces induced by the entry into the skies of Earth. No particular plan existed as they tried to fly in towards the local population, as the initial strategies and the one that had created them had already flown away from them.

Instead, they had their lives as true warriors to their god taken away, and they were going to cause as much damage as they could in response. Whether their belief in him was total or not, they could at least do this much to redeem themselves, no matter if he wasn't around to see it.

* * *

System Lords were not known for their congeniality, or their patience, but Heru-ur was currently showing just how much of a grouch he could be. Slouched in his throne on the bridge of his ha'tak, he brooded over his loss to what should have been a bunch of measely nothings. Rather than what he'd wanted, he'd gotten his forces decimated, and even this ship was too damaged to risk in a fight against them.

His fists tightened and he had a distinct urge to hit something, but knew that he couldn't do so quite so easily. The crew, failures that they were, happened to be needed for the moment, which meant that he couldn't even torture them to relieve his stress. Later he could discipline them properly, but right now, they were all that he had, and he knew that, barring any _more_ unforseen happenstances, he would get back to his homeworld soon enough.

"Sir, we have an issue," reported one of the Jaffa.

For the underling to speak, he had to have either a good reason, or a death wish, and Heru-ur knew it. "Speak, failure, so that I may hear what little you have to whine about."

"Well... there is an obstacle in our way."

"An 'obstacle'."

"Yes, my Lord. Gravity wells where there aren't supposed to be any. If I didn't know any better...."

"Yes?" growled the System Lord.

"I'd say that they were.... My Lord!"

"What is it?"

"Multiple vessels approaching!" the Jaffa called out. "Ha'tak vessels, on an intercept course!"

"WHAT?! Who would dare?!"

"We're receiving a signal!"

"Put it onto the screen."

The image that was shown was of a lovely young woman whose long skirts alternately clung and hid her legs, and whose bustier top gave a good view of her slender and smooth arms and shoulders as she lounged on her own throne. "Good day, Heru-ur. Who would have thought that we would meet again under such... circumstances?"

"Bastet."

"Ah, you haven't forgotten me."

"Why would I, you deceitful, conniving witch? What do you want?" Heru-ur demanded.

"That _is_ the question, isn't it? What would I want with the great Heru-ur, brought down to his knees by someone that he assumed to be simple savages?"

All that Heru-ur could do was growl impotently.

"Now, let us see. You have one damaged vessel with your supplies, weapons, and crew depleted by the battle that you just fought, and I have my ships in pristine order. That sort of puts you at my mercy, does it not?" she murmured, placing the tip of one long finger against her lips. "I could give you refuge, take you into my service. Or I could pass word along to the others that you are now fair prey. Then again, I could see it well done here to finish the job that the Tau'ri had started."

"You would aid _them_?!"

"Come now. You forget who it is that you are speaking to."

"I certainly know what you are capable of."

"Good. That means that now all I have to do is to figure out what exactly I want done to you," Bastet drawled, looking supremely pleased with what was going on.

* * *

Captain Harrington flipped open a cover on her command chair and pressed one of the buttons underneath.

The red emergency lighting switched back to normal, with red alert displays on several of the screens to continue the indication.

"Status report," demanded the Captain.

"Shields protected us from most of it," said the Hawaiian.

Ensign Lolanakai, Captain Harrington thought. "What about the Bismark?"

"Heavy damage," said Ensign Manygoats. "Antigrav is out. Gravity control non-functional. Shields out. Systems out across the board. Also leaking atmosphere. They're attempting a landing."

"Landing?" asked the Captain. Trying to get back to Earth in that condition would be fatal. So what - "Oh. I see. Parallel course. We've got to continue to take the fighters off of them."

* * *

"Identified as '321 Florentina' - a set of those robot vehicles from the _Tuatha De Danaan_ have already landed in the vicinity of the engines."

"Brace for impact, try to lower our speed just prior," ordered the Captain, flipping a switch to broadcast throughout the ship. "All hands brace for impact. As soon as you can, institute emergency procedures. If you're in a gunnery position - keep targetting those Death Gliders. The _Hood_ and the _Iowa_ are close and as soon as the fighting's over we can expect rescue."

There was a brilliant flare of light from one side of the ship.

"Yamato has fired on 277 Elvira," said one of the Ensigns from his station. "Looks like the Goa'uld tried to reclaim it. Main body of asteroid depleted by 30%. Power of previous shot from their spinal mount down by 68%."

"Reverse thrusters at maximum. We're still going too fast," said another Ensign just before the world seemed to implode.

* * *

The Death Glider shot past the defensive cordon as soon as the line had broken apart enough. Despite that, three of the other ships in the group exploded in fireballs before the atmosphere had thickened from black to a dark blue.

So far the only tactic that had proven effective against these Tau'ri was ramming a target with a full load of bombs. Suicide while doing the work of their god would be rewarded later on, and therefore was acceptable.

Predictably there was pursuit. The human-shaped suits didn't seem to be effective when one was going from space to atmosphere, but were extremely effective as far as seizing asteroids and horrifyingly effective in space itself.

Several of the bird-shaped Tau'ri vessels followed, much better at handling air-to-air combat, peppering the shields of the Al'Kesh with their missiles and plasma fire.

The Death Glider pilot flicked a switch, beginning to fire upon the human city long before it was in range.

* * *

"1st SFW:Snakeskinners, this is Hanson. Target has begun firing on the Golden Gate."

"Roger. Death Glider is low priority however. That Al'Kesh is priority one."

"Fine, you guys get the Al'Kesh. I'll take the Death Glider."

* * *

The System Lords were arrogant, powerful, entrenched in their ways for the most part.

"Bastet?"

"It is I, Nirrti," said Bastet, lounging on her throne and giving off a definite "cat that ate the canary" air about her.

"What is it? I'm rather busy," said Nirrti.

"Yes, I know. I'm the one who sent you the data," purred Bastet. "I merely wanted to let you know that I've just gotten back from a sort of 'fact finding' mission."

"Oh? The Tau'ri world?" asked Nirrti.

"As we're allies, mostly," said Bastet with a verbal nod towards the fact that no alliance between System Lords was going to be 100% trustworthy, "I'm letting you know that I have plans for the Tau'ri. Somewhat less hasty and obvious than those that Heru-ur or Apophis put together."

"Oh?" asked Nirrti.

"I'm considering several different approaches regarding them," admitted Bastet. "When I've decided what will gain me the most, and whether short or long term would be best, then I'll apprise you before continuing. They've proven to be... profitable to me so far."

"Apophis contacted me about destroying their world, twice now," said Nirrti. "Apparently my first little trap was spotted somehow."

"They've proven remarkably resourceful so far," said Bastet, "and I'm really not inclined to go crushing them until I've seen if I can make other uses of this potential resource."

Nirrti frowned. "I think you're overestimating them."

"Better that than underestimating them," said Bastet. "I'm arranging to meet one of their top warriors face-to-face, though he won't know who or what I am. It should prove quite interesting."

* * *

321 Florentina was roughly 27 kilometers of rock and ice.

277 Elvira had started out as 27 kilometers, but was currently under 20 kilometers due to a good part of mass being shot off.

311 Claudia had crashed to Earth and had turned out to be mainly composed of ice slush. Roughly 24 kilometers worth of ice slush, with some large rocks thrown in as well.

263 Dresda - 23 kilometers of mostly rock.

Three of four asteroids were nudged into courses that would take them to the Lagrangian Point L2. One of which had the crippled Space Destroyer Bismark on its surface.

Captain Okita of the Yamato took a point position above the Bismark and started rescue operations.

In space, the battle was winding down. There were a few attempts of Death Gliders to retake those asteroids and redirect them planetward. Between the swarm of remaining Earth ships, their robot vehicles, Space SAMAS, and the remaining capital ships - that wasn't going so well.

* * *

"-and the Japanese response seems to be summed up by Mister Kawahara of Shinjuku," said the TV Anchor.

"It is regrettable that we cannot resolve such matters peacefully, for the Japanese are a peace-loving people," said the portly and balding Kawahara on the tape. "On the other hand, if we must fight, best that it be concluded quickly and as humanely as possible."

"Another point of view was expressed by Hitomi Natsugo of Little Oaks Elementary school," said the Anchor before flashing to another tape.

"It is very sad I think, that aliens want to hurt us," said Hitomi. "We should always try to resolve things peacefully. On the other hand, THAT WAS SOOOOO COOL! I want to join the JSDF and get a Gundam and fight alien parasites! Save Japan! Save the Earth! YEAAAA! Huh? Why is mommy hanging her head like that?"

* * *

"Go ahead, we'll link up later," called out Ranma as he stuck next to Hotaru.

Hotaru was currently in her Saturn guise, holding up her glaive and forming her Silence Wall.

"We'll be signalling our ident and that you're coming along," said Jack as he glanced from where the two Japanese were blocking the corridor and back to where the Docking Bay had a just-docked Death Glider.

"Go!" called back Ranma. Not much point in keeping the blaster fire off their backs if they were just going to stand here arguing.

"Use that teleport thingie as soon as you can," said Jack, turning and hustling after Teal'c.

"It kinda rankles leaving the two kids behind," muttered Jack after hopping into one of the Glider's seats.

"As you pointed out, if nothing else she can produce a force field that will keep them safe for a few minutes," answered Teal'c. "In addition, she has apparently teleported Ranma previously and there were those reports of Ranma himself manifesting a force field. A ha'tak exploding is quite likely to be beyond their limits but neither of us have even that chance."

"Yeah, well, if I'm right - she can teleport him and herself when she's sufficiently motivated, but having her try to do four of us would be a bit much to expect," said Jack, glancing back at the corridor that was now sealing itself off. "I hope I'm right."

Teal'c merely dropped the Death Glider off into space.

* * *

They were trained soldiers, ready to do their duty on a moment's notice. When the alarm was raised, they proceeded to the indicated area with precise set of movements that would get them into a ready position in less than a minute. Such timing was critical when one had to protect the base, since enemy intrusion could do a lot of damage and take out a lot of their friends. With so little being known about the transporter rings, and how to control them, no chances were to be taken, and they had their guns ready to fire, especially when they saw the materialization of hostiles in between the rings.

And then they blinked as they saw a pretty teenaged girl in a modified sailor style uniform with a green skirt standing on what looked like a pile of unconscious Jaffa.

But there was no illusion there, as it was Sailor Jupiter standing there, her body hunched in a defensive position, ready for battle. Her uniform was in disarray, locks of her hung loosely around her face, and the knuckles of her gloves were bloody as she gripped the armor of a Jaffa and had a fist with her 'free' hand. The expression on her face spoke of extreme anger and it was clear that she was in a combat state where restraint wasn't a factor.

"Damn perverts!" she snarled at the top of her lungs. "I know that I'm more... developed than other girls my age, but that doesn't mean that they can take advantage of piling on top of me! They aren't made for hand holds!"

For a moment, the soldiers had to wonder about what she meant... until they spotted how her bosom heaved with her strained breath, put 'two and two together', and wisely kept their peace.

* * *

With their friends safely away, Saturn and Ranma had a chance to move to a spot where they could defend themselves more easily. It had a bottleneck where only a few enemies could get them at a time, but it didn't matter. There was no way out, and even if the ship wasn't about to explode, they would have been overwhelmed sooner or later.

Closing the door behind him, Ranma turned to her and smiled wryly. "We should be okay for now, but that's not gonna hold. Guess I turned out ta be a lousy protector.

"You're wrong!" Saturn protested, her eyes wide with the denial. "You're wonderful!"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"It's the truth, and what I believe!"

"Even if we ain't gonna make it outta this one?"

Lowering her head, she held her Glaive in one hand as she quietly stepped over to grasp his shirt in the other. "If I have to... you know, I'm glad that it's going to be this way."

"What? Blown up on an alien ship?"

"No, with you."

"Hotaru...." Ranma murmured, swallowing hard.

"I just wish that there was more time for us," she told him, leaning in towards his chest. "But if I have no choice, I want to be by your side."

"Ain't like I'd ever wanna go anywhere else."

"You don't know how happy it makes me to hear that," Saturn admitted, and slid her slender arms around his waist.

"I'm a guy. What do I know 'bout girls?"

"Enough."

"I guess you're right 'bout that," he sighed, and hugged her to him, pressing his mouth to her hair.

It was a position that she'd wanted to be in for a long time, and now that she was with him like this, she wanted it to last forever. Through their embrace, she was so close to his heart that she could hear it beating, and that warmed her like hot cocoa on a cold winter's night. She wanted it to keep on going, and for it to lead to so much more. Ending it like this would hurt too much to bear, and she couldn't see herself just letting it be finished. Deep in her heart, she needed to have a future with this boy, and wanted desperately to find a way to save them both.

A great rumbling shook the floor, and even then they did not stop holding each other. Shockwaves ripped through the vessel's structure, with the sounds of screams being cut off as the explosions washed over the crew. Sparks flew from conduits as they buckled, and fires sprung up all around them. Then the final blast blew through the ship from the inside out, ripping the powerful craft apart, and they were gone.

It just took Ranma a moment to recognize that they also weren't dead, or at least didn't feel so. Hotaru was warm against him, with her soft body comfortably solid and whole to his touch. Once he was sure that she was okay, he glanced around, and recognized that they were no longer in the ha'tak.

"Ummm.... Hotaru," he began, unsure of what to say.

Stirring slightly against him, she opened her eyes only enough to look at his shirt. "Yes, Ranma?"

"I kinda think that we aren't 'bout ta die."

"How can you say that?"

"We ain't in Goa'uld land any more."

Jerking due to the confusion that his words brought up, she leaned back and took in their surroundings, which seemed to be a bit more... spacious than what they'd originally been surrounded by. What looked like violet slate or marble made up the smooth and shiny floors, with towering ceilings arching overhead, with soaring supports that looked more decorative than anything else. Grand windows gave them a view of space that was simply spectacular, and didn't do much to help them understand what was going on.

"Where are we now?" she asked no one in particular.

Ranma still answered her though. "Somehow, I think this place belongs ta ya."

"How can you know that?"

"Simple. Look out the window."

"What do you mean?" she questioned... before she glanced out at the sight of a massive globe before them, streaked with magnificent colors, and orbited by a wide set of great rings. "Saturn?"

"I think so, but science ain't my thing."

"But how did we get here?"

"I'd say that ya did it."

"Why... well, I can understand it, but what is this place?"

Tilting his head back, the pigtailed boy peered around until he got a view of another part of the structure. From what he could tell, it looked a lot like those big cathedrals over in Europe, what with the massive series of interconnecting towers. But what really confused him was that, if what he was seeing was correct, it was apparently all arranged around a central giant and long crystal.

"Castle... Saturn, I guess?" he commented, not even sure if the name was likely to be right.

* * *

Sailor Jupiter was an excellent fighter in hand-to-hand techniques, skilled with cooking, able to throw lightning bolts, good at skating, and a number of things besides. She was also frightened by planes, flying, and had a few other problems.

She'd managed to get to a set of transport rings by dropping through holes in decks, unintentionally to be sure. She'd managed to get them operating as well.

"Any of you so much as THINK about groping me again," began Sailor Jupiter.

This was interrupted by the various Jaffa dropping to one knee and then making an odd salute.

There was absolute silence in the tel'tak as Sailor Jupiter tried to wrap her mind around the concept. "Uhm."

"Do you accept our service?" asked the apparent Jaffa high rank who'd made a gesture just prior to the drop-and-salute.

"Ehhh?!" Sailor Jupiter startled. "Uhm. I'm not a System Lord, you know."

"Perhaps, but you ARE a goddess," said the lead Jaffa.

"I'm not a goddess, I'm a superhero," said Sailor Jupiter, who WAS able to notice that the squad of twelve were all buff and studly. Said detail being overlooked when her mind had them filed under 'enemy combatant' and now that the status had changed was something she could pay attention to.

"Do you throw lightning as if from the Heavens themselves? Smite those who incur your wrath?" asked the head Jaffa.

"Well, yes, but I'm a superhero not a goddess," re-stated Jupiter. "Superheroes don't have worshippers."

"What do they have then?" asked the lead Jaffa, anxious to learn the correct term.

"Well, we've got fans I guess, and there's talk about agents," said Jupiter.

"Then we shall be your agents, my Lady, if you permit it," said the lead Jaffa.

"But... why?" asked a flustered Jupiter.

"Our previous Lord has abandoned us," pointed out the lead Jaffa. "While you have spared our lives."

"Oh," said Jupiter, glancing out the window at deep space. "Uhm. Okay. Can we discuss this when we're on the ground?"

"As you command," said the lead Jaffa, making a gesture towards one of the other Jaffa. "Where do you wish to land?"

* * *

"Mercury is signalling, apparently her scans reveal that tel'tak is under the command of Sailor Jupiter."

Captain Harrington nodded. This battle would be one for the books. No, more appropriate to say this battle was going to put entries throughout the Guiness Book that would stand for a long time to come. "Status of the _Bismark_?"

"Down and leaking atmosphere, we're coordinating with the _Tuatha de Danaan_ and _Hood_ for rescue operations," said Ensign Manygoats. "According to the signal - there are stress fractures in the lower hull beyond repair. Looks like she won't fly again but there's talk on that channel about making it the core of a permanent base anyway."

"The Xeno BOLO has departed," stated Ensign Lolanakai. "_Ophinicus_ is also badly damaged though not as much as the _Bismark_."

"Very well," said Captain Harrington as she toggled displays. Getting used to holographic battle-screens was going to take some tweaking. For one thing, it was like popups on her computer with one screen covering another as they vied for eyespace. The techs were going to be busy for a long time to come.

"It'll take most of a day to get the asteroids together in the proper point of orbit," said Ensign Manygoats. "Estimate another two hours before rescue operations are complete and _Bismark_ has been evacuated."

* * *

Sailor Mercury frowned as she continued to scan. "Still no sign of Hotaru or Ranma. I've got the rest of their team located."

"They're dead?!" yelped Sailor Moon.

"I don't think so," said Sailor Mercury. "There was a flare of energy with Saturn's signature at the moment that ha'tak was blowing up. The computer's still analyzing it, but it's possible that's a teleport."

Sailor Moon blinked a couple of times. "A Sailor Teleport?"

* * *

"I dunno, Teal'c," said Jack, sitting back in his seat. "Maybe it's because we couldn't capture the snake."

"Yet out of the force which assailed your world," pointed out Teal'c. "How many have survived? Has not even Heru-ur's forces suffered a major setback?"

"Well, yeah," said Jack. "I see where you're coming from. Still - we've shown our hand. Anybody coming after this is gonna be a lot better prepared. Then there's the UN and other governments."

"Will they not be pleased that your world is still free and that they are still alive?" asked Teal'c.

"Well, that's kinda a toss-up," said Jack. "See, unlike what Daniel thinks, I do read some history from time-to-time. There are countries which have pretty much hated my country even before we became a country. Some of them have liked my country for brief periods before going back to hating us, but some of them haven't even varied that much. Some of those will be supporting the Goa'uld just to spite the US."

"You can take comfort then in that your cause is just and that even those who can indulge in their hate do so at your largesse," said Teal'c.

"I suppose," said Jack, not sounding comforted at all. "Any idea what happened to the kids?"

"Miss Kino is aboard that Tel'tac in what you refer to as your 'ten o'clock' position," said Teal'c.

"Nothing on Hotaru or Ranma, eh?" asked Jack. "I know we were counting on her being able to teleport, I just wish she'd call home and let us know she's okay."

"Indeed," agreed Teal'c.

* * *

"So, this is Saturn Castle," said Ranma. "Kinda small."

"It seems to be just the one room," agreed Hotaru from where she was sitting.

"Kinda silly, don'tcha think?" Ranma asked as he idly stepped backwards, his head tilted back to give him a better look at the ceiling.

Hotaru blinked at him. "What makes you say that?"

"Well, think 'bout it. Why make a big room in space? All it gives ya is a chance ta die slow."

"It doesn't look like it's got guns or anything."

"There's other way's ta go," he reminded her, glancing over his shoulder at her. "No food, no water, and no sign that we'll even get new air."

"Oh... right."

"Gotta hope that this ain't it."

"There's one way to find out," the violet eyed girl sighed, bouncing to her feet.

"Oh? How's that?"

"We go look around."

"Sounds good enough for me. Lead the way. It's probably your castle anyway," Ranma suggested.

"And you're coming with me."

"'Course.... Hey! No draggin'! C'mon!"

A bashful smile crossed Hotaru's features as she ducked her head under his protests, but she didn't take her arm away from where it was looped around his. Part of it was certainly for a sense of security, since this was an eerie place, and she was sufficiently creeped out to want some sense of reassurance. However, as she clung to him, and the pair made their way down towards a mildly shadowed corner, she had to admit to walking arm and arm with him.

In fact, the very silence allowed her to delight in the fact that she was actually getting to act as a couple with him.

As she giggled, he threw a confused look down at her. "Somethin' funny?"

"No, not really," the Senshi admitted, but still smiled. "I'm just glad that I'm getting to be with you like this. You being here with me is all that I'd want."

"If ya say so...."

"You don't want to be with me?"

"No! 'Course not!" he blurted... before recognizing how that could be taken. "I mean, I don't mind at all. It ain't a problem. Bein' with ya is somethin' that I can do anytime. Uhh...."

Another giggle worked up through her throat and she leaned her head against the side of his shoulder... until they came to a flight of stairs. "Where does this go?"

"Only one way to find out. Ya ready?"

"I think so...."

"Pretty sure that's as best as we can hope for," the martial artist allowed, and the two of them started walking.

Other than the sounds of their feet upon the cool stone steps of the stairs, no sound echoed through the area. Up and up they went, on a journey higher and higher... without a sign of when it would stop. They kept on going, with windows giving them spectacular views of the massive planet from time to time. But the very size of the globe beyond those walls was too huge to really change from their perspective, and so they had no way of telling how far they had gone.

In fact, Ranma soon realized that he had no idea of where exactly they were. Other than the fact that this particular staircase wrapped around the inside of the walls, there didn't seem to be any sort of real change in it. Instead, one could look up and down over the railing, and seem to see infinity. It was a rather troubling perspective, especially as it made them feel rather small, but it merely seemed to be some sort of connection for the tower.

And yet, they finally did get up to the 'top', as their feet were soon able to step on level flooring again.

When he saw her bend slightly and take a lot of breathes, the pigtailed boy felt concern sharply jab into his foremost thoughts. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine. It's just that I'm not used to exercising like that," Hotaru murmured, looking embarrassed. "Sorry to be a burden."

"Ya ain't trouble at all, so don't think that way."

"Okay...."

"Good. Now we only haveta figure out where we'll go from here," He commented with a smirk.

"Which way?"

"Pick a direction, and we can head that way. It ain't like we got any idea of where we're goin' anyway."

"Ummm... Ranma?" she began hesitantly.

"Yeah?"

"Look."

His brows furrowing with his confusion, Ranma looked to what she was pointing at with one slender finger. Nearby was a small staircase that looked rather cramped for the sort of 'side by side' walking that they'd been doing so far. Another flight was down the hall, with a big railing on its side. Then there was steps that led down at that the other side of the hall. And on top of that, there was a spiral staircase leading to a landing only a little bit away.

Shoving his free hand through his hair, Ranma could only feel somewhat harried at the moment. "How many stairs ARE there in this thing?"

Hotaru wished that she could answer his question for him, but she was as in the dark on this one as he was, so she let her shoulders slump.


	31. Chapter 31: Bluster and Bases

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything. Don't have money. Just written to hone skills and amuse readers. Originally written by myself and Kender_Sci over at the Anime Addventure.

Many of the crossover/fusions featured are just spice, there is no attempt to keep those particular characters in the mix. If you want to run with one as a story of your own, please e-mail and i'll forward the request to Kender.

Chapter 31: Bluster And Bases

* * *

Makoto Kino, currently Sailor Jupiter, was REALLY uncertain about all this.

Jack O'Neill, on the other hand, was not. Despite being far enough away there was a perceptible lag in radio communications. "Sure. I'll send landing coordinates. As soon as I figure out what they... oh thanks Teal'c. Sending them now."

"I have received them, they are for this world's moon," stated the piloting Jaffa.

"Right, we've got a Ring system set-up from there, and what's kind of a temporary airlock arrangement around it," said Jack. "Inflatable foil kinda thing."

"An inflatable airlock?" asked Sailor Jupiter with misgivings.

"Hey, NASA's had something like that on the drawing boards for years, just never had any use for it," said Jack's voice from another ship. "Anyway, get to there and you can Ring over."

"What about these guys?" asked Sailor Jupiter.

"Hotaru's got some Jaffa too, there's a precedent, we'll have things ready this time around," promised Jack.

* * *

They were the peace-loving Japanese people. Just ask them. They were, as a people, very concerned with how other people perceived them. Yes, they loved peace.

On the other hand, they now had international coverage of the fact that they had SUPERHEROES of LOVE and JUSTICE who had defended them from vampiric nasties. They also had been part of an international conspiracy to save the planet from evil gods returning to enslave and/or destroy the Earth.

"THERE IT IS!" called out one of the schoolboys from the clock tower, pointing.

"I don't see it!" called out one of the boys down on a tennis court.

"THERE!" called out someone else, pointing at a dot.

Slowly the dot enlarged, trailing smoke from rents in its sides. Battered and scarred, but still flying under its own power, the Yamato limped home.

Symbology was very important to the Japanese. Also tradition. Having people out on the decks, saluting as they passed various buildings, necessitated going at a fairly slow speed.

Flanking the Yamato briefly were three other vehicles, each with a Senshi symbol emblazoned on it. These three peeled off simultaneously after passing about halfway over the greater Tokyo area.

The Yamato continued onward, eventually coming to a halt at Yokosuka.

That they had passed crowds that were completely silent was something to concern many of those aboard. A few confessed that after such a feat as they'd done, they had anticipated that there would be cheers. Still, they were JSDF and most of them were used to being seen as at least slightly villainous.

They just held themselves proud, knowing they'd defended Japan despite the lack of cheers.

It WAS terribly disappointing though.

* * *

"Well, General, do you have any excuse for this debacle?" asked the Senator, slamming one hand onto the table. "Just that one asteroid may have doomed us all thanks to your military fumbling the ball on this one."

The General sighed. "You DO realize that this is going out over radio and television?"

"And the print media," added the Senator. "Oh don't worry, your monstrous bad judgement will get play."

"You DO realize that everything we say here, including our apparent inability to even agree that we've just saved the planet," continued the General.

"That YOU endangered," interrupted the Senator.

"-will be picked up and used by those enemy forces as indication that we lack the ability to fight back, despite our successes here today?" asked the General.

"I'd hardly call this a success," said the Senator.

"No?" asked the General. "We've beaten back an alien invasion. We've kept three out of four asteroids from smacking into the planet. We've taken those three asteroids and are in the process of making them into a base from which we can shore up our defenses of the planet in the future. We are currently in negotiation with alien civilizations that are at least neutral to us, who have come to our assistance and with whom we are working."

"THAT IS ANOTHER PROBLEM!" shouted the Senator. "You're the military! You should not and never should be involved in what is clearly a diplomatic capacity!"

"One of our allies is a mile-long sentient weapons system," said the General, "who is currently fond of old John Wayne movies. We can find common ground and use that."

"That doesn't change that we wouldn't be IN this war if YOU hadn't played with forces best left alone!" charged Senator Kinsey. This was his big chance to make an impression with the public, and now all he had to do was capitalize on the fear and panic. Leave a few quotable sound-bites. Show the sheep that the military had gotten them into an untenable situation, and that he and his fellows could get them out. All would be perfect.

* * *

Looking over the expanse of grass, Deunan Knute saw the groups of SWAT team members and felt at ease with them. They were her family, and she knew each and every one of them as such, despite any lack of blood connection. There was a certain sense of camraderie that came from facing the dangers of the streets of Los Angeles, and their families naturally grew closer with that bond. A lot of the time, there could be an 'us versus them' mentality, and she knew that they needed to know that they had each others' backs when the chips came down.

And now they were laughing and cheering right along side the same people who lived in those inner city neighborhoods that they were called to serve in.

To be fair, these people were almost certainly law abiding citizens, but even if there were gang bangers and thugs in the crowd, no one was about to make a fuss about that. They were all too happy about the fact that they weren't about to get blasted by some killer alien army. Discovering that there was life on other planets was apparently all the more sweeter when one knew that it was possible to kick their extraterrestrial asses back to whatever rock they'd crawled off of.

Well, no one could say that she wasn't disturbed by the idea of having some celebrating of her own.

* * *

The voice was fairly thick with annoyance as it barked out over the crowded room. "Yomiko. _Yomiko_. YOMIKO!"

One would have seen the thick rimmed glasses first, and then the pretty eyes behind them as a head popped up from behind a pile of books. A befuddled look came across the attractive face, almost as if lost in the sudden intrusion of reality into her space. Yet, as the blinking gave way to understanding, a smile lit up the young woman's face.

"Nenene," murmured the woman with the long dark hair from in between her piles of books. "Everything alright?"

"No, everything is not! Haven't you been paying attention to something beyond what's written here?" the woman with the light brown hair growled, glaring out from behind her own glasses.

"I have been looking outside...."

"Then maybe you might have noticed that we were just attacked by aliens! And we won!"

Cocking her head to the side, Yomiko nodded. "That's supposed to be good, right?"

"Of course it is!"

"Then what's the problem?"

"Other than this is a moment of major historical importance?"

"Oh, you're right!"

"I am?" the other woman murmured uncertainly.

"Why yes! I'm sure that they'll write some fascinating books about it!"

Nenene sighed and let her shoulders slump just a bit as she took in her friend's rather obvious reaction.

* * *

"You really have no problem with this, do you?" 'Minnie' May Hopkins asked as she looked at her friend and partner.

Rally Vincent snorted as she continued the cleaning that she was doing. "Why wouldn't I?"

"I don't know. Other than the fact that everyone's starting to think that going with the 'military option' is the best thing ever?"

"I'm a gun shop owner, May. I happen to like guns."

"Yeah, a little _too_ much. Probably frightens away any possible dates."

"What was that?"

The blonde waved away the question. "Nothing. Though...."

"Yeah?"

"You think that anyone's going to try and push for us to talk to those alien guys?"

"Before or after they get shot?" the other woman asked as she held up the gun sight that she was working on.

* * *

Fiasse Crystela looked over the grounds of her school from the windows of her office and clasped her hands in front of her skirt. She knew that this was going to be a trying time for everyone, since so much damage and destruction had come about with the invasion. Many of her students were likely going to be worried about loved ones, and she couldn't help but feel concern for them, and those they might have lost.

But it could have been worse, what with what had been sent against them. So much death had been averted, and she was supremely thankful for that. Not that she would have taken up arms herself, as that wasn't her way. Instead, she followed in her mother's path, and used her singing as a way to help people, and not only in a monetary way.

That could be a good idea though, as she did think that a concert could help raise funds for those hurt by the attack. Music could do so much, and if she could both give those that were in pain something to soothe their souls with, and collect the funds to ease their suffering, she was all for it. Doing such a task was a hard thing at the best of times, but even if so much was broken and torn apart, she was going to aim to work even more to make certain that it would be a success.

She might not be a warrior herself, but she did want to fight for what she believed in, and this was it.

Already hearing the songs that would give courage and hope to soldier and civilian alike, she began to hum under her breath.

* * *

"So that's the Toy Box," said Captain Sailor of the USS Pasadena.

"Yes sir, at least that's what they're saying," said his XO.

"Why is it shaped like some aquatic dinosaur?" asked the commander.

"I'd imagine for the same reason those dinosaurs were shaped like that," said the XO. "Hydrodynamics mainly. It IS a sub. For all that it's flying."

"The news ticker says the organization owning it is 'Mithral' - what have we got on them?" asked the commander.

"High tech mercenary group, believed to have less than 500 people worldwide," said the XO. "Named for the magic silver in JRR Tolkein's trilogy."

"As in silver bullets?" guessed the commander.

"Yeah, that's what some of the web chatter seems to indicate," said the XO.

"Well, let's keep an eye on it," said the commander eventually. It was so much simpler when worries about vampires and monsters and alien invasions had been just fanciful stories. "It makes me a little nervous having a mercenary group in charge of a submersible carrier running wherever they want to."

* * *

"Considering your father's job," said Tessa, "we'll just forego the whole 'parental notification' thing."

"You know about him, huh?" asked Kaname, stirring her cup of tea idly.

"High Commissioner at the United Nations dealing with environmental issues," said Tessa. "I also know you don't get along with him. Shunya Chidori is one of those suspected with ties to the Trust."

"So what's up with Sosuke?" said Kaname, changing the subject because her father was NOT a subject she felt particularly comfortable with.

"He did really good, didn't he?" said Tessa. She leaned forward with a grin. "I had one of the automated cameras follow him during the fight."

Kaname blinked. "You can do that?"

"Oh yeah, the American military have had capabilities like that for years," said Tessa. "Their Predator drones can do that quite well."

"MITHRIL is letting you do that?" asked Kaname, wondering if Tessa was going to get into trouble for it.

"Why not? It provides excellent information about an AS unit in real space combat," said Tessa, sitting back now but keeping the grin. "In fact, I really ought to review it. Maybe you can give me some feedback on it. Not everyone who's going to be looking it over is going to be from a military branch after all."

"I might be able to do that," admitted Kaname. She was just curious. That was all.

* * *

"All right! We get new uniforms out of this!" said Jaffa #1.

"I don't know. I kinda like the traditional look, and these new weapons are so noisy," said Jaffa #2.

"You'll get used to it," said Jack.

Makoto hung her head. She didn't really think she NEEDED Jaffa. Much less ones dressed like THAT.

"So these are the clothes typical of one of your warrior subcultures," said Jaffa #3 in his deep growly voice. "What exactly IS a 'biker'?"

"A warrior subculture that stresses self-reliance," said Daniel. "Sometimes rogues and outlaws. Pilots of two-wheeled transportation devices."

"Here's some pictures," said Jack, handing off a Cycle World magazine.

"Why ARE we going with this particular sub-culture?" asked Daniel.

"Because they're big and tough-looking, and they aren't with an official group," said Jack. "Besides - 'Jupiter's Jaffa' SOUNDS like a biker gang fanclub."

"They look primitive, dangerous, and lacking in armor," said Jaffa #1.

Jaffa #3 grinned. "So that's good good and bad. We'd have to use hand-weapons. Are these vehicles fast?"

"I've got a bad feeling about this," said Makoto.

* * *

"This is a Goa'uld when it is NOT inside someone and controlling them," said a scientist, putting a large jar with something floating inside.

"ICK!" summed up a number of people as the thing hissed and snapped.

"So this is one of those alien gods who think of us as prey and slaves?" said a newsman.

"Yes," said the scientist.

"And it gets inside us?" asked the newsman.

"Yes," said the scientist. "It puts out tendrils that connect it to the nervous system of the creature it has selected as a host. Once it's done that, it can begin overriding the host's nervous system. Like a computer virus, once it has infected a host - it gains more and more control as time goes on. It can even access memories of the host which makes figuring out who's a Goa'uld even more difficult."

"These things and those yoma. Those can also take human form right?" asked the newsman.

"Yes," said the scientist. "So can various other races, including the suspected 'Dark Senshi' that are still out there."

"I wonder how much of the suffering in human history came at the urging of such things," pondered the newsman thoughtfully.

* * *

Ranma wasn't quite certain as to how welcome it was, but he had to admit that he wasn't as disturbed by the light show as he should have been. Certainly, it was impressive, but given that he'd experienced plenty of strange and fantastic events so far, he tended to expect surprises to show up. At the same time though, he was concerned about Hotaru, given that she was inside that light, and every instinct screamed at him to do _something_ to make certain that she was alright. But all that he could do was watch and hope for the best.

"Yeehaw! Systems online!" squeaked the high pitched voice next to him.

Oh, and he had what looked like a miniature version of Hotaru in her fuku standing next to him, seeming to be something akin to a trigger happy gerbil.

"Now this is what I'm talking about," drawled Guardian Saturn, looking rather smug right then.

He glanced down at the diminutive figure before returning his attention to where his childhood friend had been standing. "Are you sure that she's going to be okay?"

"Of course I am. It's not like its something meant to hurt her."

"Then what's going on?"

"Duh! It's a command chamber. In there, she can let her power flow. That's why you can't go inside, studmuffin. Her power is a part of her, but not you. At least in energy terms." The Guardian's expression turned wicked. "But there is a way to become one with her."

"There is?"

"Uh-huh. Just get some chocolates, a few candles, and some satin sheets, and you'll be in business, baby."

"Ummm... I don't see how that'd work," Ranma muttered.

"Of course not. It's not supposed to be about 'work'."

"If ya say so."

"Exactly. And as I say so, it looks like... she's coming out."

"She is?" he blurted, and peered intently at the room, before the sound of boot heels sounded on the floor. As the steps got closer, he leaned more towards the entrance to the room as a shape became clear to his gaze. "Hotaru! You're okay!"

"Actually, I feel... amazing," the violet eyed girl admitted, leaning on her Glaive more to let herself relax than anything else.

"Really?"

"Yes, but I'm not sure that I can explain it. What I went through in there... it was like letting myself flow out from my body and into everything around me."

Stepping over to her, he put an arm around the Senshi's waist to balance her. "The important part's that you're still alive."

"And I'm more than happy about that. Still...."

"Yeah?"

"Do you think that anyone else noticed what happened?" Saturn asked, peering up at him.

"Who cares?" growled Guardian Saturn as a nasty smirk crossed her features. "If anyone tries something, then those punks better be feeling lucky."

Both humans sweated a bit as they were stuck being unable to come up with a satisfactory response to that statement.

* * *

Walking in the shadows was something that Gauron did with some regularity, but then he never really celebrated being able to walk in the light. To him, even on a bright and sunny day, it was time to do nasty things, and he rather enjoyed how his work gave him the opportunity to indulge in his... 'past times'. Of course, he'd much rather go forth and cause death and destruction, but one couldn't have fun all the time.

At the moment though, he had to keep quiet, and that wasn't due to any battlefield restrictions. Instead, it had to do with the situation being a lull between the storms of battle, and taking it easy was something that he had to do. He certainly could do that, but even if he was able to stay quiet, the allure of fighting kept him going.

After all, he was heading out to his next mission, and he was looking forward to it, which wouldn't bode well for anyone in his way that wanted to stay breathing.

* * *

The motorcycles were a collection of odd machines pulled mainly from classified ads and quietly acquired.

One of the "bikers" was already talking about outfitting the cycles with antigrav.

Jupiter's Jaffa checked their helmets, sunglasses, and spiffy leather jackets. Ready to roll.

Sailor Jupiter, on the other hand, was a little less enthusiastic about having a VERY rough-and-tumble looking group of bikers who were her backup/support for space missions. Or even that she HAD a spaceship. A tel'tac. Not like the Mercury Tornado or Venus Bomber in that she couldn't summon it. Instead she'd have to radio for support.

"We can add a turret here, maybe a few bombs," enthused the pilot of said vehicle. "Just for self-defense purposes of course, my goddess."

Jupiter actually growled a little at that.

"I mean, my liege," corrected the pilot.

"We have taken Earth names applicable for such 'bike clubs,'" said one of the biker-attired types. "I am D'eth."

"I am War," said the most muscular of the Jaffa.

"I am Phamine," said the thinnest of the Jaffa.

"I am Plague," said a particularly disheveled looking Jaffa.

"I am Pillage," said the most well dressed of the Jaffa.

"Whereas I am Stormwind Bellows," said the pilot.

"Uhm," said Sailor Jupiter, really uncertain about the entire situation.

"Told you that was too much," said D'eth.

"Well I wasn't that fond of 'Ignorance' or any of those other suggestions," said Stormwind. "I mean 'Starbuck'? Makes me sound like I should be serving those overpriced caffeine beverages."

"I like 'em," said Phamine.

"Then you be Starbuck," grumped Stormwind.

Jupiter's expression indicated that she had serious doubts about all this.

* * *

_German High Command:_

"Some people did better than others. Airman Third Class Axel Higgs for example."

"Has he been tested? After what he accomplished on the _Bismark_..."

"He hasn't been tested yet. He still has two broken arms, a broken leg, the other leg's been shot, and he has a concussion."

"How the blazes did he get shot?!"

"One of the guards belowdecks was apparently feeling a bit rattled and thought he was some sort of space zombie. THAT soldier has been rotated Earthward and given a nice quiet post where he's unarmed until he can pass a psych eval."

* * *

"He's... good," said Kaname as the images flickered across the screen.

"That he is," agreed Tessa. "Look at the reaction times. Definitely showing his Talent."

"Kurz is pretty good too," said Kaname as she pointed at the screen. "That's him taking a sniper position, isn't it?"

"That's his specialty," said Tessa. She considered something for a few moments, her attention flicking back and forth from Kaname to the display. "Miss Chidori, have you considered what you'll be doing after High School?"

"No, not really, probably college," said Kaname.

"You speak English well," said Tessa.

"Yeah, I spent a few years there," said Kaname. "After my mother died, well. It's only been the last few I've been back in Japan."

"Which brings me to my next question," said Tessa. "Have you considered working for Mithril?"

"WHAT?!" asked Kaname, suddenly having this mental image of her dressed as a soldier and carrying a size Huge gun.

"It's something to consider," said Tessa. "After all, you're already in your Junior year and you DO have some aptitude for technical work."

"Huh," said Kaname, picturing herself as a mad scientist in her lab - laughing maniacally. Except Tessa was working for Mithril and wasn't exactly prone to evil laughs. "Can I think about it?"

"Just suggesting it," said Tessa. "After all, someone got ahold of the information about you and whoever they are - they're still out there."

"I thought they got rid of Gauron," mentioned Kaname.

"He apparently escaped from the Americans and is at large," said Tessa. "Mister Sagara can continue to perform as 'stalking horse' to give Wraith time to whisk you away, but..."

"But that can't continue indefinitely," figured out Kaname. "I don't have a lot of options do I?"

"Not true," said Tessa. "You can join. You can not join. If nothing else, the Americans would likely be more than happy to have you. If you were offworld, it would make it even more difficult for someone from Earth to reach you."

Kaname pictured herself piloting one of those X-wing knockoffs, going down a Death Star trench with TIE fighters overhead. "I don't know about... hey what's that?"

Tessa paused and then backed up the display. "Oh, that's when the Goa'uld Heru-ur escaped. That's a 'hyperspatial bloom' - a flare of light that occurs when a ship is forming a hyperspatial tunnel."

"Hmmm, you know that sort of thing should be easy to detect," said Kaname. "I wonder if there's a way to cloak that sort of thing."

* * *

Hotel rooms were actually more familiar than her own home in a lot of ways for Paris Spears. This wasn't due to any dislike of her home, since she had made certain that her 'people' had gone out to choose the most suitable one for someone of her talent and reputation. However, with all the touring that she had to do, and the fact that she wasn't sleeping on the bus or the plane once she arrived at a city, she spent a lot of time in hotel rooms.

Of course, at least at home she could be sure that if she was propositioned for illicit activities, it was going to be someone that she'd met for that purpose.

Still, it was relatively quiet in her hotel room this time around. A half drunk bottle of Southern Comfort sat nearby as she moodily stared out at the sparkling lights of the city beyond the window of her penthouse. She'd certainly paid a lot for that view, as she deserved to get that sort of scenery, but she wasn't actually seeing it.

Instead, she felt rather like pouting over the problems that had come with the reveal of her new tour costumes. Of course, plenty of people liked the view, but then again, many of those folks just wanted to see the cheeks of her ass bounce into view, and much of those folks were already mentally turning plenty of innocent outfits into fetish items as it was.

No, her problem was with the outcry against this silly idea that she was trying to mock these 'Sailor Sent-chi' people. As far as she could tell, she couldn't even remember meeting any naval people from that country. But those protesting kept on saying that she was trying to insult some Japanese superheroines, and that just made her have to wonder if they could just say where these people were, since she couldn't see what she could have done in that country.

Well, she could have seen a flash of _something_ in Tokyo, but there was always something going on there, and they had a lot of... interesting things in _that_ town.

Still, she was hoping that something welcome would come from this mess. At least she couldn't remember if there had been any actual anger from these girls themselves, since they were being pretty quiet as far as she knew. If anything, she was certain that her staff would let her know about such a problem, since no one else was showing up to give her any news.

Then again, the flashes of light that came up near her were jolting enough on their own.

"That's funny," she murmured to herself as she saw a handful of big burly figures show up where no one was standing before. "I was sure that I didn't have any special candy yet...."

Her words got a blink from the lead figure as he stepped forwards. "My lady, we have come to beseech you for a favor."

"Huh? But all fan requests are supposed to be coming through the club...."

"We are not mere... 'fans'."

"No? Well, I suppose that you could come for more, but I'm not in the mood for this many partners...."

"My lady, do you not recognize us?"

Paris squinted as much as her inebriated state would allow her and swayed slightly before the facts filtered through to her addled mind. "Oh! You're the guys from my dream!"

"You did not dream us."

"Really? It all gets a bit hazy after a while. But who cares. What's brought you fun time guys here?"

"We are looking to seek your service," the leader stated, bowing his head so that his tattoo faced the floor.

"Well, I know that my charms are in demand."

"Indeed. Due to your position, and our past... history, we have come to offer our loyalty to you."

"All of you?" the blonde asked, wiggling a finger at each man in turn.

Each of those standing in front of her nodded.

"Wow. It's like my own little bodyguard troop. But why not somewhere else?"

"We would have no choice in any case. The other forces of this planet would not... desire our presence amongst their forces," the leader admitted. "And our former master is likely only to tolerate our presence for as long as it takes to remove us from this life."

"Sounds like a real hard ass."

"I suppose that you could say something like that...."

"And now you want to work for me? Cool. Should be interesting, I think."

"We hope so, my Lady."

"Good. Good. So why don't one of you follow my first command and go get me a parfait?" she asked, waving a hand at the group.

The former spies of Heru-ur glanced at each other and wondered what exactly a 'parfait' was.

* * *

Ranma let out a deep breath and tried to access the abilities he'd gotten in that space/time crack.

First he opened _Sahasrara_ and the Awareness that brought to him.

He checked through the others in their turn. _Ajna, Vishuddha, Anahata, Manipura, Swadhisthana, Muladhara._ It was with the last that he accessed the shielding technique he'd used in that base fight.

Here in Castle Saturn, Hotaru was busy with other things. Guardian Saturn seemed preoccupied with her. Leaving Ranma without much to do.

Ranma didn't have much else to do, and this WAS on his to-do list.

* * *

It would take time to put everything together.

The Bismark was the centerpiece, the ship being mostly intact and on the surface of the planetoid as the components were shoved into their new orbital position.

The Earth Alliance would each have their own representitive areas and contributions, though objections were already being thrown about by those NOT in on the initial alliance.

Not because the non-contributors wanted to spend money. No, it had to do with rights and with having access to the advanced technology.

There was even the factor of having a microgravity environment for factories and as a launch point.

That the United States had a Ring Teleporter on the lunar surface had not become public knowledge yet. It was only a matter of time before that hit the fan.

That Alliance was already at work on things like that. It had been suggested that the Chinese and Russians have their own domes at the planetoid. Maybe the generous offer of a lift of prefabricated modules to a part of the lunar surface so that they could have their own space lab would defuse some of the vitriol.

The Earth Alliance was also talking about a lunar colony. The British representitive was suggesting prefabricated modules lifted via ship to be placed on a comet where water ice could be easily mined and purified.

"How cool would that be?" summed up the Brit, pointing out that such a base would have the benefit of being a mobile refueling station.

Throughout all this though was one further bit of information. The Goa'uld had been beaten off. They would be back. Earth needed to be ready.

* * *

"Oh, that's just GREAT," said Sailor Pluto, sitting back in Castle Pluto. "Define 'weird power fluctuations', Guardian Pluto."

"Well, that's kind of hard to say," began Guardian Pluto.

"Answer the question or I'll do a Rename function and have you called 'Mini-Me' for eternity," threatened Sailor Pluto.

"AKKKK!" reacted Guardian Pluto. "Extradimensional force. Displaying biopattern. I'm attempting to interface with the Saturn Castle to learn more."

"Better," agreed Sailor Pluto. "Saturn Castle is fully functional?"

"Yes, the little loli-psycho is awake," said Guardian Pluto.

"Check for lifesigns," said Sailor Pluto.

"Two. Sailor Saturn is there. So is someone else," said Guardian Pluto.

"That would be Ranma Saotome, consort of Sailor Saturn," said Sailor Pluto, watching for 's reaction.

"GAKKK!" said Guardian Pluto, not disappointing with her exaggerated reaction. "Little Miss Deathstar has a CONSORT?!"

"He's a ninja named Ranma Saotome," said Sailor Pluto with a miniscule shrug. "Actually they make a cute couple."

"GAKKK!" repeated Guardian Pluto. "But... the sanctity of the timeline!"

"Get over it," advised Sailor Pluto.

* * *

"I really am sorry about this," Professor Tomoe commented as he leaned back behind his desk. "Believe me, I know how much of a pain it can be to have to leave your work to go talk to 'officials'."

Shion merely gave him a shrug. "Don't worry about it. Even when I was working in the corporate sector, we had this sort of stuff to get through. Upper management problems aren't all that far out there."

"Then you have no problem with this?"

"Well, I wouldn't say _no_ problem, but where would complaining about it get me."

"I understand," he told her as he tapped the summons in front of him. "No matter how much you fuss, unless you're dead, they'll want to see you."

"And considering my feelings on going to the afterlife...."

"Shion, you were not planning on continuing biological function?" asked a voice over the young woman's shoulder.

Glancing at the other individual in the makeshift office, Shion smiled. "No, KOS-MOS, I plan on living for a very long time."

"That is the preferred situation in this case."

"I'd like it that way as well."

"Good. Although...."

"Yes?" the younger scientist asked.

"What is the reason for this request to visit a pointless group headed by someone with a clear lack of data?"

"Well, I wouldn't say that they are going to be pointless, since we've been getting funding from them."

"Besides," the professor put in, "it'll be her job to help educate them as best she can."

"Understood. That shall help in my travels to this 'Congress'," KOS-MOS commented.

"You're willing to go?"

"Of course. Where she goes, I am to accompany her," the gynoid stated, and turned to look at the female scientist. "Do not worry, Shion. I have been told about the 'attacks' that will be sent your way, and will protect you from them all."

Both humans tried to imagine Senator Kinsey facing off against the mechanical girl, and found that it was likely to get... 'interesting' at the hearing.

* * *

Hotaru had always had romantic daydreams about what it would be like to finally be with the man of her dreams. Much of her fantasies had been influenced by television and books, and she knew it, but that didn't bother her. She rather liked the idea of being drawn into a castle bedroom, lit only by candles, for the purpose of discovering how wonderful such sharing could be. Just thinking about it could get her giddy and blushing, not that she was disappointed by that reaction, or the fact that she had never been really able to imagine getting into any sort of... sex.

On the other hand, she hadn't thought that she'd be going to a bedroom in her own castle that had an overabundance of red decorations, and a round bed that didn't look like it was meant for sleeping.

"What is this?" the violet eyed Senshi asked.

Looking up at her, Guardian Saturn blinked. "It's what it looks like. This is the bedroom that I set up for you."

"Well, that's true enough, but still...."

"I did spend a lot of time decorating it...."

"Ya did this?" Ranma grunted, poking at the mattress. "Maybe then you can explain ta me just how you're supposed to sleep on this thing."

"Silly. You don't _sleep_ on it."

"Than what _do_ you do?"

"Lots of things," the Guardian drawled.

"I don't think that I fit with this...." Hotaru murmured uncertainly.

"You will when you're dressed for it."

"'Dressed'? How so?"

"Simple. Pick an outfit, wear it, and I'm certain that lover boy will just love it!" chirped Guardian Saturn.

Out came a rack of clothes, and it was amazing that there was such a wide assortment of options available. Lace bras and panties were designed to hint at what would be hidden beneath. Satin teddies, complete with thigh highs were available. Corsets in shiny leather rested near robes of silk.

And each of the pieces of clothing came in a nice shade of purple.

Guardian Saturn grinned broadly. "Pick one. I'm sure that he'll just love to see you in one of these!"

If her face could blush any more, Hotaru figured that it would burst into flame, so she trembled as Ranma glanced between the clothing and her,

* * *

The planet Nassya was fairly primitive, but that didn't mean they could simply put a checkmark on some clipboard and move on to the next world.

Especially when the Goa'uld were blowing things up.

Sam ran towards a fallen man and began CPR as the Death Gliders wheeled overhead, intent on saving one person at least.

Besides, it would take her mind off... other concerns that had occurred recently.

She had already begun CPR when she realized it would be best to use the medscanner to determine the extent of internal injuries, and by then it was too late.

* * *

"It'll probably take weeks for the various politicians to finish their little inquisitions," said Pluto. "In any case, since you'll be blundering about space - these are 'no fly' zones."

"I see," said General Hammond, taking the sheet and folding it a few times before sticking it into a jacket pocket where the wind couldn't blow it away. "What of the other Senshi?"

"I'll bring them into this too," said Sailor Pluto. "With aliens actively trying to invade instead of just infiltrate - we'll need to seize whatever advantage we can."

"Understood," said General Hammond, leaning out over the railing to watch the jets land and take off. "We're apparently going over several different plans right now, meeting with the various others in our Alliance."

"Professor Tomoe is working on the battleship?" asked Sailor Pluto.

"It is to be a Japanese space cruiser," said General Hammond. "Of course, there will be an American presence on board."

"Considering what I've seen of Professor Tomoe, he's probably quite happy," commented Sailor Pluto. "How big is this one?"

"One thousand two hundred and ten meters, and nearly that wide, or so I'm told," said General Hammond.

"That's enough room that you can have an entire embassy there," pointed out Sailor Pluto.

"Its size didn't do the alien species that built it any good," said General Hammond. "However the Japanese are quite enthusiastic about it. We have the Stargate, the Germans have the lion's share of the new Lagrange base, and sometime in the future the Japanese will have this." General Hammond watched as a flight of SAMAS lifted off and rapidly vanished in the distance. "The British and our other immediate allies have their own plans for their own specialization of resources."

"I see," said Sailor Pluto, trying to imagine a spaceship that size. It was sufficiently huge that she'd need to find something of approximately the same size just to compare it.

"They aren't produced yet, but this might suit Jupiter-san when the factories start mass production," said General Hammond, handing Pluto several sheets in return. "You understand this is top secret, of course."

"Which one?" asked Pluto.

"The top one doesn't fly," said General Hammond.

"This requires three people to operate," pointed out Sailor Pluto. "It also is squat, weapons heavy, and... German?!"

"Yes, the Alliance members will have a presence on the new ship," admitted General Hammond.

"I thought they were going with space tanks?" asked Pluto.

"That was a couple of design changes ago," said General Hammond. "Now they're going with these monsters."

"I just don't think any of these are particularly her," said Pluto. "Besides, much as I find our current association to be mutually advantageous - there will be times that even the closest allies will find themselves at cross-purposes."

"'Well, at least we still have Paris'," quoted General Hammond.

Pluto visibly shuddered. "I suppose so. Though she may redeem herself in the future."

* * *

"We can't do much with their equipment because we can't let the US Military get word that we have it," said the head of the engineering team.

"Do something about that, I leave the details to you," said Paris Spears, making a dismissive gesture. She hadn't gotten where she was by handling all the details herself after all. First get a decent manager, then delegate all the petty details - that was the ticket. Otherwise she'd get all stressed out and what would that do to her stage image? Probably give her split ends or something. Ick.

"Right, so their outfits?" asked said manager.

A couple of effeminate looking men nodded at each other before one stepped forward. "Two words. Tight leather."

"Sounds good to me," chirped Paris. "Add bits of armor. In public they can wear suits, preferably with some of that kollar stuff."

"Kevlar, dear. We'll need to take measurements," said the other designer.

"They're in the bedroom, currently unconscious," said Paris. "They were... adequate."

* * *

"Ours is not the richest nation, so things like this are the best we can do," said Princess Diamond. "A Privateer. A pirate who operates with the sponsorship of a government to operate in the territory of that country's enemies."

"Still," said one of those advisors. "She's crazier than a rabid wolverine, a sadomasochist with a flair towards sociopathy."

"Which might turn against us, I understand," said Princess Diamond. "However, that very mindset may well insure her success against the System Lords."

"But still," said another advisor, shuddering. "HER."

"Just to make sure, we'll have several agents among her crew," said Princess Diamond. "I'm not ignorant of exactly what she capable of or what she is. If she does turn against us, they'll have orders to shoot her repeatedly and dump her out an airlock."

"Bangladesh Dupree," said the first minister, crossing himself. "May we be forgiven for inflicting HER upon the universe."

* * *

"X-2 has found another alien society and made successful initial contact with them," said Kowalski. "They're called the... how the heck do you pronounce this, anyway?"

General Hammond took the folder, glanced at it, and frowned.

The species dominating the nearest planet to Refuge was apparently nonhuman and descended from some pseudo-feline ancestor.

Looking over the file, General Hammond passed over the data keeping bits and went right for the real information. He knew that a lot of what was put down was important, as details could reveal all sorts of things that could shift the path of events. But he just wanted the general overview and found it quite quickly.

That the alien race was humanoid was good, since that would mean that they wouldn't have to rework things like doors or clothes too much to fit these new possible allies. Of course, he wasn't about to automatically invite them to share in humanity's secretes, but then again, it wasn't too bad to see possible advantages coming up. Having this species being on the level of only Thirteenth century technology would be a problem though. It was bad enough enough trying to get humans of his own society to understand interstellar travel, and he could not see getting some medieval knight to even understand that the stars were not merely pretty lights in the sky.

Still, it was nice to see that there were races out there that were available for contact, especially ones that could be understood. "So, they're a warrior culture. How dangerous are they?"

"Possibly very," Kowalski admitted, actually thankful that he had survived long enough to do so. "Pretty tough customers, it seems. Strong and aggressive, but smart enough to be able to use it well in a fight."

"Could be useful. Are they willing to work with us?"

"Sir, they thought that the team might be coming to rule them."

"Excuse me."

The younger man gave a weak laugh. "Apparently, they were under the impression that we were trying to draft them into being our personal warriors."

"Damn. We're not the Goa'uld. We don't go running around trying to conquer everyone we can."

"Not that some idiots see it that way...."

"What was that?" Hammond asked, glancing over at his subordinate.

"Nothing, sir. But the truth is that it was a bit of a misunderstanding. They saw a stronger force, and knew that they could be taken down, so they saw the team as a dominant force...."

"Strength must be important to them. Anything else important."

"Well, there is one thing...."

"Yes?"

"Apparently, there is some interest in... crossing the lines. You know, relations that are... conjugal."

"I hope that you're not saying what I think you're saying," the General grumbled.

"I'm not... someone who has something to 'tell', sir, so I don't know about the males, but from what I know of their women...."

"Yes?"

"I wouldn't call them ugly by any means. I could see how some guys might be interested...." Kowalski admitted.

General Hammond just looked at the other man for a long moment before leaning back and rubbing at the bridge of his nose with one hand.

* * *

Sergeant Gil McDonald had received some injuries to his right leg decades ago in Vietnam when he'd been commanding an APC.

He had been working for the last few years here in Saint Paul, at a recruitment office that was set into an old mall.

There were times he thought that he'd been forgotten and left to vegetate. Times where he was actually glad of such a fate.

He was following the stories in the news. Who wouldn't? New technologies. New allies. New enemies. He was also following the sidestories that weren't getting a lot of attention.

The mullahs and the mujahideen had abruptly slowed activities. Didn't mean they weren't out there. Didn't mean they had dropped plans. Those who watched such things were reporting confusion in their web traffic. If America was still the Great Satan, then how did you qualify alien space parasites out to force you to worship them, take your body for their own, and do other things that even the Great Satan stopped short of? Did you really want to destroy the Great Satan fighting such things, or was it better to wait until after the two had decimated each other and THEN go after them?

That was only one group, there were other enemies out there just on Earth. Not all of which had been known until recently. Those 'yoma' for example.

The financial market had gone completely nuts. Stocks could start off the day three hundred points in the loss column, end up three hundred in gains, and hit peaks in either direction of double that. Most of the finance gurus seemed to be saying the same thing - hold on and wait for the turbulence to pass.

Religious groups seemed to be all over the place too. Some were decrying all aliens to be of the devil, others wanted to send missionaries, still others were still having fits over the yoma revelations.

Sergeant McDonald entered the mall, still skimming through the newspaper. There was apparently a block on making the fusion power available to the public, and it all ended up being wrapped up in various legal considerations. The method used by the one race that was most forthcoming with technology was inherently unstable. It required constant tiny little adjustments in magnetic field strength just to keep running, and there was something of a quandry as regarded the amount of AI involved.

Sergeant McDonald folded the paper under his arm and came to a stunned halt as he looked at his recruitment office. On a GOOD day he might get one or two applicants.

Seeing the line outside the office indicated that this was going to be a day outside the usual parameters.

* * *

There had been four ha'tak in the assault. More than enough for a single world at this level of development.

One had largely disintegrated and was gone. Another had been severely damaged by pieces of the destroyed one, but was currently being towed towards the L5 point. China, Russia, France, and Canada had all put in claims as to why THEY should have it.

Another ha'tak had blown itself up.

The last one had fled.

* * *

The base was underground, hidden, and all the people who had taken part in its construction had been killed and the corpses disposed of.

"Mister... Gauron, is it?" asked one of the shadowy figures. "I'm told you could benefit our little project."

"Oh yes, I know all about your '33.1' project," said Gauron, smirking at the shadowy figures. "Find those who can or did benefit from the 'black box' technologies and whisk them off to your little labs where you can take them apart and figure out what makes them tick."

"That is but a small project here, a tiny part of the whole," said the shadowy figure who'd spoken earlier. "You come highly recommended, Mister Gauron. Otherwise just knowing such things would earn you a death sentence."

"I also know about the Amalgam Branch," said Gauron. "You're not doing much right now."

"Right now we are doing quite a lot," said the shadowy leader. "The world situation is unstable, which is perfect for recruitment."

"Not only recruitment but infiltration," said Gauron with his voice betraying a slight irritation. "I meant you're not doing much of the major projects like that toy that got loose in Washington."

"We have... projects under development," said another of the shadowy figures.

"Well, let me tell you about something you'll find of interest," said Gauron.

* * *

"Well, are you sure?" asked the actor. "Who wants to watch science fiction if we're actually living it? The writers can make up some alien species from Sigma Draconis, only to have the _Hood_ go there and bring back pictures before we get to air date."

"We've just acquired a technical consultant," said the producer. "Someone who's up on the newest technology, has an inside track on the nonclassified findings, and can get us some really nice CGI in the bargain."

"Oh?" asked the actor, well familiar with BBC budget limitations. He thought about that, put his hands in his jacket pockets and frowned thoughtfully. "Okay. I can see where that might be of interest. Do we have the budget for a consultant?"

"Not a problem," said the producer. "Though you might have a bit of a problem working with the fellow."

"Why would that be?" asked the actor. "It's not Siwan, is it? Because she and I... No you said 'fellow.'"

"That would be me," said an unfamiliar voice.

The actor scratched his stubbly scalp as he looked around. There were hands assembling the TARDIS, film crews readying the cameras, and all the usual hangers-on doing their usual things in preparation for a shoot. Nobody nearby. "Uhm, right."

"Right here."

"What's this anyway? New villain?" asked the actor, pointing at a quite-obviously robot dog prop.

"Not quite," said the producer, smirking.

"Eh?" asked the actor.

"I realize it's a bit early in the morning," said the robot dog, "but I really would hope that you could adapt a little quicker."

* * *

Academically, there was much that the Tok'ra knew that they had in similarity to the Goa'uld. They both needed hosts to really take advantage of the outside world, and tended to prefer humanoids in that case. Should they be able to get such a situation, there was a preference for what they would take that came along gender lines. Even though they could take on a host of either sex, and had 'queens' of their own, they tended to prefer certain types of individuals. For some it might be some sort of prejudice, or a sexual desire, or for others it could be simply a preference based on what would fit their personality, but they would go with that which they knew.

However, that was as far as Jolinar of Malkshur was willing to go. At the very least, she would only really take a host who was willing for any real length of time. Anything else was distasteful at best, and she preferred to get out of any unrequested bonding as soon as would be safe for both her and the host.

Unfortunately, she wasn't exactly able to go through with what she wanted, since she had to stay where she was to survive. She'd nearly been killed twice, and her hosts hadn't been able to get to where she could safely leave them. That thought rankled, and she'd have preferred to be able to do something about it, but she was still feeling out what she could do in this form.

About the only luck that she had was that this host was a woman, and an attractive one at that. It might not be the worst thing to be in someone ugly, she did have a matter of pride going on there. Still, she had a bit of admiration for this 'Samantha Carter', as the woman was not only a skilled scientist, but was a true warrior as well. Had they had the chance, she wouldn't have minded staying with this woman all that much, as it would be interesting to share experiences with someone as interesting as this.

Still, she was a bit put out about other things.

Oh, it wasn't the sight of foreign visitors that was really bothering her, as she could see the reason for guides taking allied militaries to meetings at bases. Nor was it the sight of all sorts of technologies being used, as she would have thought that a rational being would take advantage of what had been found and would be determined 'safe'. Even the talking dogs didn't bother her quite as much as she thought they would have.

No, what really had to top it all in confusing the hell out of her was the fact that there were plants that were not only growing underground, but were apparently _thriving_.

Just how they could get planters inside such a place was uncertain, but it looked rather like a greenhouse in some areas of the base. How this could be wasn't something that she understood, although she did have to admit that it made the place... livelier. That wasn't to say that the whole structure was taken over by the plant life, but it seemed that everywhere they could be put, they had been.

Sighing to herself, she wondered if someone had found some sort of sentient flora and made accommodations for it.

"Oh my," murmured a friendly voice. "Aren't you feeling well, Captain Carter?"

Turning her host body to look, Jolinar saw a lovely young woman with markings on her face, and concern in her eyes. "Uhhh... why do you ask?"

"You looked rather down just a moment ago. Is there anything that I can do to help?"

"I doubt that anyone can do anything...."

"Hmmm? What was that?"

"Nothing."

"Well, if you need anything, let me know."

"I will," Jolinar murmured, watching the girl depart with a smile on her face, watering plants with the can that she carried.

"That Belldandy's something else, isn't she, Carter?" asked a male voice as a hand clapped her on her shoulder.

"Eh?"

Jack O'Neill grinned over at her and shrugged. "It's a bit surprising to have one of those 'Asgard' guys living with us, never mind a couple of them, but they seem nice enough."

'These people really do know the Asgard on a personal basis?!' Jolinar mentally yelled.

"Still, we've got other things to do right now."

"We do?"

"Sure do," the colonel answered, and waggled a finger in front of her. "There's that mission to the moon, remember? You really wanted to get at that 'Silver Millenium' tech, and Daniel's just wild for the chance to check out all the knicknacks that they might have left behind."

"On the moon?"

"Where else? We only got one of those. And it'll be nice to actually know where to look now."

Letting Samantha Carter's brow twitch, Jolinar wondered what the heck was going on with this world. They should have been much further behind on the level of advancement than they were at the moment, even with access to the Stargate. Instead, they were charging along to even become a match for the System Lords, which was unheard of, as such speed in growth just didn't happen.

Rubbing one temple, Jolinar/Sam just sighed again.

* * *

He watched things developing and was curious. The mortal worms surrounding him for so very long on this world had done something unexpected.

The question was whether to continue what he was doing here, or go investigate.

He held the knife up where his victim could see the long thin blade, still with flecks of blood from the last of these hairless ape-things that he'd played with.

He made the body he was wearing smile at the hairless ape-thing child. "We've just started playing. Daddy wants to play with his little baby."

Afterwards he'd leave this body, and the father would be stuck with the consequences. Idiot humans, trusting in their oh-so-primitive science.

No, he didn't have to look at whatever stupidity these humans were playing with. He'd been playing with them for eons now, and they couldn't possibly surprise him anymore.

* * *

"Miller, FBI," said one of the blacksuits, seating himself at the table. "That's one of those gadgets?"

"Yes," said another blacksuit. "You already know me. This is Johnson, Immigration. Jones, ATF. Murray, CIA."

"Try the chicken nuggets, I believe it's the only item on the menu NOT likely to contribute long-term health difficulties," said Murray.

"May I see one?" asked Miller, holding out a hand. On receiving one he frowned. "It looks like a PSP."

"PSP?" asked Jones.

"PlayState Portable," said Miller.

"That's deliberate, they're making PSPs that hook into cellphones now. Should hit the market in about a month," said Colonel Maybourne. "The BOLO has dedicated an assembly line to making the critical component we can't, per a very top secret deal we made with it."

"The boh-loh?" asked Murray.

"Very top secret, though details may become available in the near future," said Maybourne, looking perfectly comfortable in his blacksuit. "We're working on a version that looks like a pair of normal sunglasses. This is for the meantime. We have a few hundred available. Spread among the various agencies that isn't much, but it's felt that it's better than nothing. Codename for the device is 'Checkpoint' and for the production project is 'Mimir.'"

Miller held up one of the ersatz game devices and clicked it on. "Human, human, human, human, human... there's a blip here."

"Let me see," said Maybourne, sighting along the device as soon as it was handed over. "Okay, good. That's also a human reading but it's someone with an Ancient gene. Just means that they can access some experimental technology we're working with. It's good because I can demonstrate that this is also a 'human' rating."

"So what does it actually detect?" asked Miller.

"It's like those medscanners you've heard about," said Maybourne, lounging back in his chair. "A lot simpler though. If the individual has a Goa'uld parasite, an alien physiology, or is manifesting some sort of holographic disguise - this will tell you."

"So there are really aliens hiding amongst us?" asked the skeptical ATF man, Jones.

"Yes," said Miller. "How about containment of a noncorporeal entity?"

"You know of one?" asked Maybourne, raising an eyebrow.

"One of our little secrets," said Miller, before apparently deciding to give information in case that bumped the availability of the device he wanted. "Top secret, eyes only, that sort of thing. A body-hopper. Mass murderer. Enjoys torture and killing, then usually does a murder-suicide before moving to the next host. Slipped up a few times and someone caught on back in the thirties. Was able to confirm existence when Aristotle went live. Apparently avoids one area like it was the plague, but could otherwise show up anywhere."

"What area is that?" asked Maybourne.

"Surry County in North Carolina," said Miller. "Rural. Backwoods, even. Nothing we could find to explain it. The entity apparently went into a rage when it found its host was going on that route. Killed the bus driver and ten people, yelling in Latin all the time. A pharmacist who survived knew enough of the language to wonder why three people in a row started having a fit about it."

"Hmmm," hmmmed Maybourne, wondering what could be found in a backwoods part of North Carolina of all places. Maybe he ought to have someone look into it.

* * *

"Oh, Jolinar," said Belldandy. "I'm sorry, Sam, can I talk to Jolinar right now?"

"Eh?" said Samantha Carter as the girl from earlier. "What?"

"Miss Belldandy? What exactly are you saying?" asked Colonel O'Neill.

"Oh, she has a Tok'ra symbiote," said Belldandy. "Didn't your medical scanners pick her up?"

Medical scanners were immediately drawn and aimed.

"Uhm, let's not be too hasty here," said Sam, putting up her hands.

"The Tok'ra are a myth," said Tea'lc.

"What kind of myth?" asked Jack.

"Tok'ra means 'against Ra' - they would be Goa'uld who turned against the policies of Ra," pointed out Daniel Jackson.

"I take it the trip to the moon has been put on hold?" asked Sailor Pluto.

"I just wanted to ask Jolinar if she was here to formally contact the Tau'ri," said Belldandy.

"ah, well, actually I was hiding from Goa'uld assassins," said Jolinar/sam as her eyes flicked from the various zat-guns pointing at her.

"Yeah," said Colonel O'Neill to Sailor Pluto. "Give us an hour or so."

* * *

"Haaaaaaaaaa," said Ranma, exhaling.

Blue light shimmered in Castle Saturn as he took in and stored chi.

Guardian Saturn flitted around him, observing. The Consort of Saturn appeared to be fairly formidable despite being other than a Senshi. At least on the level of the various Shitennou the Earth Prince commanded, though that was considerably below Senshi level in her opinion.

Ranma sought the _prana_ or chi. He then checked the nodes it gathered and flowed from. Muladhara, Swadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Vishuddha, Ajna, Sahasrara.

He could do the kanka. He'd worked out the Rising Dragon Ascension. He could manage an "instant step." However, there was still a problem in that he had no attacks to hit something in space at a distance. Which he considered a problem because there seemed to be a lot of things which could hit HIM at a considerable distance.

Sure he could avoid or block a lot of attacks. Ranma knew though that a purely defensive battle meant that you were simply losing slower. That was something he wasn't inclined to accept.

* * *

There was no one who would ever have much nice to say about Gauron, not even himself. Not that it particularly bothered him, as he was rather fond of being a bastard, seeing as it was 'fun' for him. Living on the edge was the only way that he could exist, and he liked being on the border of life and death. For someone like him, 'peace' was merely the boring part between wars, and he was never that keen on being idle.

That was why the big man was currently smiling to himself as he saw workers scurrying around to move the equipment that he'd need to get his mission completed. Each of them looked like good little worker bees, buzzing around the complex in their coveralls from crate to crate, checking papers to confirm contents. They were useful tools, and he knew that he had enough work to do as it was, which made it all the much better to get peons like these to take care of the details.

"Sir," murmured a voice behind him, and he turned to look in the cavern's dark lighting to see one of the supply workers holding a clipboard. "There seems to be a bit of a problem with the work."

"Is that so?" he drawled, letting his disdain show in his tone.

"Yes, sir. It's the amount of it. With all the varied equipment you requested, there's a bit of a log jam in getting it shipped."

"Oh? And this is a problem?"

Her eyes hardened, and she lowered her board. "Do you really need all of this?"

"To do what your bosses want me to, I sure do. Besides...."

"Yes?"

Quicker than any normal eye could see, he slapped his hand out to the wall that he had her back up against as he leaned over her, his breath hot against her skin like a wolf's on a winter's night. "Who the hell asked you for your opinion?"

"Sir."

"No need for that sort of respect. I know what I am, and I'm thinking that you're getting an idea of that too. Am I right?"

"Ye... yes...." she choked out, her throat bobbing a bit as she tried to swallow.

"Good. Remember, they didn't agree to employ a well behaved soldier. They got a predator, and you're getting to see what they're paying for. Like it?"

"I...."

"Of course, I could really show you a good time. Then again, _I_ would probably like it, but you'd be a bit put out," he purred, tracing a finger of the hand not bracing himself over the open collar of her coveralls. "Wouldn't you like to see what that would be like?"

"No...."

"That's right," he commented with a smile... and then let the teasing hand grab her throat in an iron hold.

"Please...."

"You want to live? Then remember that good little girls do as they're told and keep out of the way of the real work. Shut that mouth of yours, and act like a proper little sow, and I won't have to snap this scrawny neck of yours, understand?"

Terror shining in her eyes, she nodded as quickly as she could.

Releasing her within a moment, he let her drop to the floor without ceremony. "Then get back to work before I think better of it."

She didn't need to be told twice as she scurried away as if her life depended on it... which it did.

Watching the woman speed off, Gauron gave off a little snort and wondered what it was that let someone like her think that she could have such an attitude. For some idiot to think that she could stand up to him was such a mockery that it disgusted him, and he almost wanted to chase her down to beat some more sense into her. But that would give her more attention than she deserved, and he had little desire to focus on some woman like that.

It wasn't that he had anything against women on the battlefield though, as he had seen some female combatants that had been a lot of fun in a fight. Now _they_ were worth his time, no matter whose side they were on, especially when their bitchiness took hold. Then things could get interesting, and he rather liked the idea of seeing a woman really enjoying herself. One could almost say that a battle was better than sex, considering how much more could be done in it, than in the sack.

If anything, part of what he planned on doing was going to bring girls into it. He wasn't too sure on where those cheerleaders had come from, but he was certain that he'd be able to find out. Finding them was going to be important after all, and seeing what they were made out of would hopefully be rather amusing. Perhaps he'd even be able to break some of them in, as they would make the most delicious weapons, what with those powers of theirs.

He'd get all this, and a chance to see about fighting Kassim again. The situation was almost tailor made for him, and he rather liked the way that things had turned out. It gave him a chance to really get a work out, and he had been denied that sort of thing for entirely too long.

Although he did have to keep his end goal in mind too. Those stuffed shirts would be entirely too cranky if he didn't complete the task that he'd offered to them, but then it wasn't like he wasn't planning on getting to it. To not do so would be ever so silly, considering what it would mean in getting him even more fun to be had.

Besides, he rather liked the idea of seeing Kaname Chidori again.

Thinking about the game of blood and pain that he'd soon be able to play, he grinned in genuine pleasure.

* * *

"You evaded me once, and you're a cop," he said, walking around the man on the street. "You've figured something out, but what?"

"That you're some sort of serial killer, and you hop bodies," the other said. "As impossible that is - it's the only thing that fits the facts."

"Ooooh, you ARE a smart one then," the younger man said. "That's right. I was around when your kind were still picking the fleas out of each other's fur. I created civilization, just so I could play more interesting games. And I always win. Do you know why that is?"

"Because you're able to do that body-hopping?" asked the cop.

"No," said the younger man. "It's because-"

"Tiiiiime is on my side,  
Yes it is.  
Tiiiiime is on my side-"

_beep beep CHIUUUUUU!_

The cop looked down at the twitching younger man, then over at the guys with some weird gadgets in hand, including a couple of snake-shaped guns? "What? Who are you guys?"

"It's on the move," said one of the guys, pointing with one finger while he watched the screen on his gadget. "It's moving into the cop."

"Wha-kk. I mean 'Who are you guys? Whatever those guns are-" said the cop, reaching for his own gun.

_beep beep CHIUUUUUU!_

"It's out of him, looks like the zat-guns scramble the nervous system so much that it can't immediately re-establish control," said one of the black-suits as he continued to track something invisible.

"What happens if we shoot it when it's outside a host?" asked another blacksuit.

_beep beep CHIUUUUUU!_

"Oh, it didn't like that," said one of the blacksuits, grinning in an evil fashion.

* * *

As he'd explained to the policeman, his latest victim, he was incredibly old. He'd been on this miserable dirtball of a world for an unbearably long time, stuck among sheep. His only amusement had been torturing them, and even THAT had grown boring. Playing with the slight danger of them knowing what was going on was only the latest twist he'd brought to the game.

Now he'd been forcibly kicked out of two hosts, and shot while between hosts with something that reminded him of when he'd had a host go rolling around on top of a hornet's nest.

They couldn't do this! They were simple monkeys playing with sticks! He was immortal, he was invincible, he was beyond them in every manner!

"Tracking entity, he's on the move," said one of the blacksuited half-evolved monkeys.

Azazel moved as quickly as he could, already planning his revenge on these creatures as soon as he could figure out how to get close enough to one of the blacksuits to possess THEM.

Ah, there we go. A cat. Stealthy and perfect.

_beep beep CHIUUUUUU!_

Maybe a little girl? They wouldn't shoot a little girl would they?

_beep beep CHIUUUUUU!_

Apparently they would. Maybe her mother?

_beep beep CHIUUUUUU!_

A squirrel?!

_beep beep CHIUUUUUU!_

The first beam missed as the squirrel dodged and leapt and ran as if foul demons were on its tail.

* * *

"It's body hopped into a biker now, heading South and breaking speed limits all the way."

Maybourne nodded, checking screens. "Keep monitoring. We've got men stationed along the route points. We're herding him right where we want him. If it looks as if there's a chance he's getting away, go to Plan B. Better we eliminate the thing now than take that chance."

* * *

The police car was keeping up with him, but he knew this was an opportunity. Just go off into the cop, then he could double back and get into one of those blacksuits. Once there he could find out what these gadgets were and how to get around them.

Ah, here he came. One of these dumb local sheriff types.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" asked the sheriff in a laconic Southern American drawl. "Long time no see, Azazel."

"I... YOU?!" the possessed biker screamed as he realized. "But I'm nowhere near Mount Airy?!"

"Only about thirty miles from it," said the sheriff with a friendly smile. "They done tracked you good."

"No, you can't do this! I am a GOD!"

"No," drawled the sheriff. "You're what they'd call a Fallen. And I told you what'd happen if our paths ever crossed again."

* * *

Maybourne chewed the inside of his lip as he watched the images carried by spysat.

"That sheriff has a similar reading, but different in several respects," said one of the watchers. "Now... there's only one reading. Biker's clear. It's like the killer just vanished."

"Like a candle being snuffed," mused Maybourne.

"Sir?"

"What have we got on that sheriff?" asked Maybourne.

"Quiet little rural community, no crimes other than moonshining and bootlegging," said another operative. "Occasionally criminals from other districts flee into the area, but the sheriff there has a pretty impressive track record of being able to talk them into giving up. Some of those he's talked to have gone from being hardened career criminals to model citizens. Weird, huh?"

Maybourne nodded. "Duality."

"Sir?" asked another operative over the radio.

"Keep an eye on the sheriff but do not approach," said Maybourne. "I have a feeling the reading is going to vanish soon anyway."

* * *

He'd been altered by the contact with the equipment. He knew that now. He was still Sosuke Sagara, Kassim as far as Gauron was concerned, but he was somehow getting better when he'd already thought himself at the peak of his game.

It mostly seemed to affect his skills with the 'Armslave' robot vehicle he was piloting, though some of the systems seemed to work erratically even with his new talent.

However there was another consideration that was causing him to throw himself into more training. It had come to his attention on two occasions that his combat abilities were in need of further honing.

During the raid on Beryl's island, and again in the schoolyard during the attempted kidnapping. His performance of duties had been perfect, except that he'd become unable to fight during each operation.

Ranma Saotome, whom Sosuke regarded as a superior hand-to-hand combatant, had recently upgraded his combat parameters significantly. The methods used were unknown, but would likely be something related to Saotome's upbringing as a ninja. Saotome, of course, denied being a ninja - but as Weber had pointed out that would be exactly the reaction one would expect FROM a ninja.

Likewise, a method utilized by the Sailor Senshi to improve their combat capabilities would likely be of little use with himself. He was a soldier, not a ninja, not a magic-wielder, nor gifted by mysterious forces.

HOW to upgrade was something he was currently working out.

Oh, there was another of those spies. That was the third one today.

* * *

"Okay, what have we got?" asked Gauron.

"Three missing spies so far," said the woman, remaining several steps out of immediate reach by some incredible coincidence.

"What?" asked Gauron.

"Three of the spies we sent are suddenly and inexplicably missing," said the woman. "We've got a fourth in place who is still reporting in regularly, but hasn't been able to track down this 'Chidori' girl."

"You sent them all out at once to different locations, correct?" asked Gauron.

"Yes, the logical conclusion would be that three of them somehow gave away their cover and were detected by someone watching the girl."

Gauron considered that briefly, then scowled. "Were the three under different orders than the fourth?"

"All four were to monitor Kaname Chidori, then capture if opportunity presented itself," said the woman.

"Have number four avoid trying to capture by himself," said Gauron, a possibility gelling itself within him.

"I'll do it immediately," said the woman, scurrying off.

Gauron's face settled into its usual stony expression. "Intent. Has to be it. I hate psychics. Mess with an otherwise straightforward job."

Still, if they could monitor her - there was an excellent chance later to simply use the last spy as a forward observer.

Gauron's eye went to the large surgical bed-like structure in the center of the warehouse. "How's that coming?"

A technical sort looked up. "It's ready whenever you are. Just needs minor adjustments for body size. Are you going to get a test subject so I can make sure it's all fit together right? I had to machine some of the parts based on what you wanted."

Gauron didn't threaten, didn't snarl, didn't try to intimidate. You had to know how to handle certain types and the technician was the sort to get sloppy when scared. Then you had to find a new one and not everyone had the sort of technical expertise needed. "No, but I do have a few ideas on that."

* * *

The Caitians (the name they called themselves involved a lot of rowl noises) were a felinoid race that had a caste-based society. In fact, it resembled the sort of thing feudal Japan had - though the technology was slightly more advanced.

Prince Thong of the Lyorn (another name given by the Terrans because most of them couldn't manage to get the hck-spt sound right) Nation waited for his valet to finish buckling the ceremonial armor in place.

"Ceremonial armor might look nice, but it's a pain to get these lacings in place," grumbled the valet.

"Pah, these oomahns have those image-recorders," said Thong. "Once recorded, the image becomes permanent and the planet of these oomahns will circulate copies of the image in unthinkable numbers. Anything less than the best appearance will reflect poorly upon my house and nation."

"Oh, I understand the necessity, my Prince," said the valet.

"In which case I totally agree with you regarding ceremonial armor," said Prince Thong, checking the vambraces himself. Not that he doubted his valet's abilities, but because he understood any imperfections were going to be on record. Hell if he was going to embarass his descendents a dozen generations down the line.

"So, there will be a war, sir?" asked the valet.

"If all goes well, we will have a war such as our most battle-hungry ancestors might have envied," admitted Prince Thong. "Though the manner is strange and honorless in that all weapons extend farther than one's reach. Still, the CAUSE is one of honor."

"Those 'gun' weapons are powerful, but one can hardly fault them for wanting to keep alien bodysnatchers at bay," said the valet. His voice turned thoughtful. "Have you been near that darkskinned female of the oomans?"

"If she smelled any MORE interested, even these oomans with their dead noses would be able to tell," said Thong with a chuckle. "I understand a few females of our kind have detected smells of interest from some of the ooman males."

"Yes sir," said the valet.

"These oomans have some weird customs and moralities," said Thong thoughtfully. "Caution those who might respond. Wear claw-guards, try not to bite too hard, and be discrete. Explain that any of the image-takers must be shut down due to our religious observances."

"Which religion has such a policy?" asked the valet.

"All of ours, as of now," chuckled Thong. "I may indicate interest in a mating with the dark-skin female, as I am quite curious myself."

"She'd never be able to get this armor off you," opined the valet, finishing a ceremonial knot on the shinguard.


	32. Chapter 32: Hearings and Headaches

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything. Don't have money. Just written to hone skills and amuse readers. Originally written by myself and Kender_Sci over at the Anime Addventure.

Many of the crossover/fusions featured are just spice, there is no attempt to keep those particular characters in the mix. If you want to run with one as a story of your own, please e-mail and i'll forward the request to Kender.

Chapter 32: Hearings And Headaches

* * *

This was something rather familiar to Shion, as she had attended countless meetings before, and likely would later on. Despite being a scientist, she was also the one called to meetings to explain what exactly the work being done was supposed to bring about. Management types tended to need to know what their money was being spent on, and they were usually not scientifically inclined types to start with. Whatever the technology was behind the latest advances made by the Research and Development departments wasn't the important thing to them, as they cared mainly about the results of said technology.

Even the fact that she was currently dealing with the government didn't change that fact. Those that would want to have her sit down at a table with them were likely to not understand technical terms, and want to get down to the 'nitty gritty stuff'. Of course, given that Vector Industries had been a government contractor, that wasn't something that she was unused to, as she had even experienced having 'discussions' with those who had a sense of their own importance and responsibility... which was many times vastly inflated.

About the only oddity about this time was the level of those who she was now facing. Dealing with senators one on one was different than dealing with a major panel, but she hadn't risen to her level of authority by letting herself be frightened by a row of power. For her, the only main difference between this, and facing a board of directors, was in that she was seated at a different table than them.

So, she kept herself relaxed, and understood how these games were played. She had avoided wearing pants not due to any preconceptions from the male senators, who would react better to her that way, but due to the fact that she liked how she looked in a skirt. If a few of the leches wanted to stare at her stocking clad legs, then they could do so at their leisure. At the same time, she wasn't about to try and pretend submission to those who'd obviously made up their minds, since to try would only make her look and feel like more of a fool than they were.

No, it was her task to explain the realities of the science to those who were undecided or unsure, which was actually mostly coming from those who were not in the room at that very moment.

"Miss Uzuki, are you aware of why you were called here?" Senator Kinsey asked, leaning forward and pinning her with a hard stare.

Having experienced being demeaned plenty of arrogant men over the years, Shion merely smiled and nodded. "Yes, sir. I was told that you asked for me to come to testify over what is going on out there."

"Yes. In space. And how you have helped to put it in danger."

"Senator?"

"Don't act so surprised. We'll get to that soon enough," Kinsey told her. "In the mean time, what exactly have you been doing that is so special that you are needed?"

"Other than the fact that I have been helping to not only acquire technology, but deciphering its usage?"

"Pardon?"

"A great deal of what we have come across has not been given over to us from willing sources. In fact, much of the technology that we have gained has come from places where the inhabitants have been wiped out by various scourges," she replied, folding her hands on the table top.

"Really. And if it did them all that good, why should it do anything to help us? They certainly didn't get anything out of it?"

"Other than the fact that we have the time, and can work to make what they created better? Perhaps it would have to be the concept that no matter what you make, if it is not directed in the proper path, then it can not help you in the least. One can make all the weapons in the universe, and not be able to do much in handling a plague."

"And that is part of the problem!" he snapped, slapping his own hand down on the desk in front of him.

"If I may, could you explain that remark?"

"Certainly," Kinsey growled, letting his brows lower as he glared at her. "You and yours have been exposing us on this planet to forces that you can not control. Have you actually thought about what sort of threats you could be bringing here?"

"Actually, we have made a point of protecting this planet."

"By creating a force that gets blasted when an enemy attacks."

"Well, there is the fact that we weren't totally prepared for the attack, but we did do as well as could be expected given the amount of time that we had. Rather amazing how much reverse engineering my contemporaries have managed to accomplish in such a short span. It does add to the protection of the planet."

"Huh? 'Add'?"

"Senator, please consider what could be brought back from alien worlds. We are not only talking about simple wars. You do have to realize that even mundane things could cause horrible consequences. Why, fumbling with the wrong power system, or visiting a world with a harmful pathogen could cause all sorts of havoc on this planet without need of an invasion. Fortunately, safeguards have been put in place, making it so that any accidents will never happen on this planet."

"Then you admit that problems can happen."

Her smile turned wry this time. "We _expect_ them to happen. No system can ever be one hundred percent fool proof. Our only hope is that we can create a system with a reasonable amount of control, so that we can prevent a disaster before it occurs."

"And it never occurred to you to leave well enough alone?"

"We have had need to keep ourselves safe after we discovered that we were not alone in the universe."

"Really? Then why haven't you implemented some sort of plan to work against it?"

"I have done my best to help, but it is the job of the military and political personnel to set goals for what we need to do in that regard."

"I see. But if you saw that, then why not get us something more substantial to defend our homes with?"

"The more complicated a system, the harder it is to replicate it. Time is needed, and the fact that such advances have been made is impressive," she admitted, letting her tone show her admiration for her collegues.

"I see. Then did you bring this... doll of yours to show us how well we can do in taming alien technology?"

Shion turned to look at KOS-MOS, who had been sitting silently through the entire exchange and frowned. "Sir, I don't understand your point."

"Then let me stick it to you. This... robot of yours is supposed to follow your commands, correct? Then you could have brought it to show us the 'pretty' side of the mess that you have put us in."

"KOS-MOS is a _she_, Senator, and isn't just some drone to push around."

"Which makes _it_ even more of a threat, and likely something that should be restricted until we make sure that we know what makes _it_ tick."

"Sir, that is...."

"Shion," KOS-MOS stated, her expression never changing as she turned her head towards the human woman.

"KOS-MOS?"

"Is there something wrong with this individual?"

"Ah... that is.... Why would you say that?"

"My sensors do not detect any physical abnormalities for someone of his age and body type, but what he says does not compute."

"Well, he is...."

"_I_ am the one holding this meeting, and _I_ am the one that comments should be directed to," Kinsey sneered.

"Understood," KOS-MOS commented, and looked straight at him. "Why do you seem incapable of making up your mind?"

"My mind is wholly my own, and is made up. What would it even seem like I do not have the safety and security of the American people at heart?"

"You have two mutually exclusive plans stated. On one side, you claim to be disgusted by the idea of allowing travel to other worlds, and wish to end it. But on the other, you apparently desire to steal and grab any weapons technology that would allow you to create an overwhelming military force against any and all off world individuals."

"'Individuals'? Pheh. Those aliens are nothing more than a mockery of what is on this planet."

"Other than true alien races such as the Goa'uld or the Asgard, much of the extraplanetary population is human, and happen to be descendants of natives of this planet," the gynoid calmly stated.

"They don't even follow a true faith, what with all those would be 'gods' that are out there!"

"Many of whom we, and others like ourselves, have proven to be false, thereby shattering the image of 'legitimacy' of those would be 'deities'."

"We are trying to fight for humanity!" the Senator choked out.

KOS-MOS cocked her head slightly to the side as her unblinking gaze remained fixed on the Senator. "Then why attempt to break down that which has worked so far, rather than pushing it forward? Proceeding in the manner that you have started seems to be counterproductive."

As Kinsey gaped at the blue haired 'robot girl', a number of the journalists, audience, and other senators were nodding in response to her arguments... and the thoughts what would likely happen to Senator Kinsey's reputation after this.

Shion just stifled her giggles, and felt a wellspring of pride for her dear KOS-MOS.

* * *

"Your doll is out of line," tried Senator Kinsey, directing a comment towards Shion.

"Again you make illogical statements," said KOS-MOS. "Might I request that we move a link upwards in the chain-of-command structure?"

"What are you talking about?" asked Senator Kinsey.

"I am most familiar with military style structures," said KOS-MOS. "I am attending in several roles at present. I am Shion's bodyguard and assistant. I am also a representitive of the civilization found on Xeno and Refuge, and the machine intelligence now operating on both worlds."

"Excuse me?" said another Senator into the intervening silence. "You're saying he's correct and you're a machine?"

"Correct," said KOS-MOS. "I am an emulation of the human form. After some research I have settled on the term 'gynoid' as the most accurate of the various terms involved."

"As a machine, I dispute you have a right to be heard at this inquiry," said Kinsey. "I further move that all comments by the machine should be stricken from the record. In fact, we should seize this toy and take it apart to determine what technology we may glean from it."

"Your current most major forthcoming ally in space is the BOLO on the planet deemed Refuge," said KOS-MOS. "Such a course of action would significantly pose hazards to the continued well-being of such a relationship. I do not understand your desire to engage in such pursuits."

"Because he's an idiot," said a new voice.

Between one moment and another, she was simply there - stepping out from behind a pillar which couldn't possibly have concealed her.

"Guards?" asked Senator Kinsey.

"I'm on the list," said the woman, stepping down. "I'm just a bit early. You DID issue subpoenas for both Asgardian and Senshi representitives, didn't you?"

"And you are?" asked one of Kinsey's associates, who was smirking at his colleague's discomfort.

The woman posed, tossing her head once to send her long hair swishing around behind her. "The Sentinel of Time standing proudly, Sailor Pluto. Representing the Silver Millenium and its forces." It wasn't as if the whole moon visit hadn't been postponed anyway.

Not that she hadn't made sure her appearance was as perfect as it could be, nor rehearsed how she'd planned to introduce herself. Just because she was going to be on international TV and the recordings from it would probably be around as long as human civilization continued? Of course not.

An electrical spark from a television grew and solidified. "Representing the Asgard, Vanir branch, Urd."

Light blossomed next to Shion and KOS-MOS. Shion flinched, while KOS-MOS didn't even blink.

"Thor, Asgard, Aesir branch," said the 'Roswell gray' sort of alien. "I can only stay a couple of moments, and am legally restrained only to make a few cryptic comments."

"He'll probably misinterpret them anyway," said Sailor Pluto, adjusting the little domino mask she was wearing for the occasion.

"Excuse me," said the associate of Senator Kinsey. "I'm rather new to all of this. Prior to the recent attack in Washington I was strictly concerned with things of a more local nature. Could you tell me about this 'BOLO' who is our ally?"

"Ah, this is a, oh I suppose you could call it a 'hologram' representation," said Urd, making a couple of mid-air gestures.

Washington DC, in miniature, appeared in midair. Then something materialized next to it.

"This is to scale?" asked the associate.

"Yes," said KOS-MOS. "Your name and designation, please?"

"Senator Tezuka, Hawaii," said the Senator.

"This is a representation of the BOLO, a self-aware 'tank' by your terminology," said KOS-MOS. "BOLO has been self-aware for thousands of years and has been retooling and expanding his self-repair facilities so as to meet the needs of his allies. He sends his regards and apologies for not attending in person."

"He wouldn't fit," said a bemused Senator Tezuka. "I'd also imagine transport to be problematic. Please relay the appreciation of those I represent to 'BOLO' for what assistance could be given."

"Recorded," said KOS-MOS.

"You're representing the BOLO?" asked Shion. "Why didn't you mention that?"

"It was a tightbeam compressed transmission," said KOS-MOS. "As we were going anyway, it was logical to include such a sub-mission."

* * *

Ranma scratched his head as Hotaru closed the door to the room, then stationed herself at the door as if to protect whatever was inside.

That Hotaru had turned beet-red was apparent. Why that had happened was less so.

"Uhm, I thought you were training?" asked Hotaru.

"Yeah, well, someone keeps popping up and interrupting," grumbled Ranma as Guardian Saturn flitted around his head.

"Oh dear," said Hotaru. "So that's where she kept going."

"So, mistress, are you going to do it now?" asked Guardian Saturn.

"Do what?" asked Ranma.

"I got the room all ready for you!" said Guardian Saturn.

"Room?" asked Ranma.

Hotaru couldn't have looked any more embarrassed.

Guardian Saturn wondered how to get them INTO the honeymoon suite.

* * *

This was _not_ what Kinsey had been hoping for, as the whole session was turning out to be something of a farce. Instead of being some stiffnecked idiots, or uncertain fools, he was getting a bunch of big mouths who seemed intent on mocking him. He wasn't going to let them get the better of him though.

"Now, let me get this straight," Kinsey sneered. "You're telling me that this machine, which was created for war, is actually our friend?"

"Incorrect. The BOLO was created for combat, which does not stop during times of 'peace'," KOS-MOS corrected him.

"But it is a battle machine."

"With a purpose to defend its allies programmed into it."

"Ah... uh...."

"The challenge before us isn't in the fighting, but in the knowing, as we do have to deal with all these different cultures," Shion put in.

Urd raise a brow at the human woman and smiled in approval. "Well put."

"Why, thank you."

"There is that," Tezuka allowed, and looked towards Sailor Pluto. "And what about your people? What exactly do you get out of this?"

"Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," the green haired woman quipped.

"Pardon."

"Sorry, but you have to realize that we are citizens of this planet too. Our only desire is to have a lasting and comfortable peace."

"So, you really have been fighting for us."

Pluto let her mouth get a wry twist to it. "I'd think that you'd seen that from the battles."

"I meant before you came out into the open."

"Ah, yes. Well, there are those who will tap into forces that are... not natural, and unwise to use. We try to clean up those messes."

"Over in Japan," the Hawaiian senator commented.

"Exactly. After all, despite what some people think, there are centers of importance other than where they live."

Somehow, Kinsey felt rather like he'd just been insulted. "And what do you get out of this?"

"Other than keeping what's important to us whole?"

"Not that we want to take anything from you," Urd put in. "I mean, we're not the sort to exact tribute from other races. Though we are rather pleased about how you've been showing promise in kicking Goa'uld backside."

"It would help if you were better able to fight against the System Lords. That would free up our own forces for more... pressing matters, and allow you to take a greater role in your galaxy," Thor admitted.

"Then you aren't troubled by our leadership?" Tezuka asked.

"We have great faith in the one known as Hammond, as he has proven himself to be an able commander."

"Only because he bows to you and yours," Kinsey mocked.

"Hardly. If he were not dedicated to your race, we would lose all respect for him. As it is, we have seen great promise in your species, and are interested in watching how quickly you seem to be able to grow." Thor wasn't really equipped to shrug, he simply gave an impression of something similar.

"And you just happen to be so altruistic. No hidden agendas?"

"None. We do have our own issues, but to trouble you with them would be... bothersome."

Smirking, Kinsey stared down the grey alien. "Then you agree that your people are troubled by ours."

"You are mistaken. To burden your race with our troubles, which are not yours to carry would be cruel and unjust. That may change though with how well you are learning to come together as a people."

"You call this 'coming together'?"

"Perhaps you might not be included in that, Mister Kinsey," Thor allowed.

"You know, if you are so intent on having us be diplomatic, you could always take Senator Kinsey here to see the universe for himself," Tezuka suggested. "He could visit plenty of worlds with your people to show him around."

"That would be... unwise."

"How so?"

Lifting one hand towards the named senator, Thor looked over the entire panel. "He has proven to be... less than willing to consider new ideas. As such, he would be a threat to your world's future that we can not allow."

"You don't mean...."

"If he were to be exposed to the universe at large, there is a good chance that he would offend those who would need a delicate touch to approach. Not only would that alienate a good number of possible allies, but would create a number of enemies who would want to come to this planet to gain retribution for the insults done upon them. We would prefer to keep him where less damage can be done."

More than one face fought to keep from breaking out into a grin.

Senator Kinsey was _not_ amused.

Tezuka looked over the 'guests'. "What do we do then?"

"Keep using diplomacy," Pluto responded.

"We could always use that space colony that you are building," Urd commented.

His eyes widening, the Hawaiian senator politely ignored Kinsey's apparent fit. "We're building a colony?"

"The work's just starting, but we're hoping that we'll eventually be able to have civilian emigration to it," Shion revealed. "It's at a Lagrange point, and we looking to have several more if we can."

This interested more than one senator and spectator.

* * *

The battle footage was circulating on the internet, on TV, and discussed on the radio.

Many people were reeling from recent developments. Not all, to be sure.

Some were tuning in as various personnel were ferried up to where the asteroids that had not fallen were being made into what would eventually be the first Lagrange Colony. Progress was slow on that front but there were a number of people tuning in to THAT as it involved heavy machinery, construction, and some really spectacular views. Astrogeologists found themselves thrust in front of cameras to discuss concepts like asteroid mining, astrophysicists to explain the Lagrange points and various other subjects that would crop up, physicians to talk about the microgravity effects on the human body for those staying there.

Oh, and there were the various scientific groups clamoring for lab space.

There were some who were admittedly watching the various hearings. Some of whom were exchanging side bets on whether Kinsey would have a meltdown or not.

There were those in religious communities who were firing off quick protests against artificial intelligences. There were those in religious communities who were for carrying one form of gospel or another out to the stars. There were those of religious communities, and a few groups of other origin, who were all for cutting all contact off with space and hoping the problems would all go away.

There were those who found the idea of cybernetic implants and bionic replacement limbs horrifying. There were those who found them attractive. There were those who saw the mechanical girl known as KOS-MOS and decided she was an abomination, and others who wished she was on the market so that they could get one, and still others who wished they could meet a girl who was that logical and straightforward.

The result of all this was mainly chaos. It had taken two days for the hearings to be convened, though many things like that had already gotten started due to the giant robot attack in Washington and had just been expanded.

It would take more time for things to settle down enough for organization to take place, demographics to be tallied, opinions to be made clear.

In times of chaos though, there were always those who saw this as their chance to improve their lot in life. Some good, some not so good.

* * *

Her name was Ukyo Kuonji and she lived in the Kansai area, Osaka specifically. However, one of the advantages of using a yattai in your business meant that you could pull up and go where the crowds were.

"Get your okonomiyaki right here!" declared the salesgirl to the crowds.

"Do you have a permit?" asked one of the soldiers.

"Sure do, sugar," said Ukyo, jerking a thumb at one of the documents posted on a wall.

"Huh, how about that?" said one of the two MPs, checking it. "It IS in order. You must work pretty fast."

"Hey," said Ukyo, winking at a customer as she slid a Shrimp Special onto his plate. "In this business - slow means less business."

The more talkative of the two MPs shrugged and looked over towards the gate she had set up next to. "I'd think these crowds aren't really your best business opportunity though. There isn't that many people trying to get a look at the Yamato."

"Yet," said Ukyo. "Right now they've got those sheets up while they work on it. When you go into space though, it's taking off from here."

"True," agreed the more talkative of the two MPs.

"Business isn't exactly bad here now, as you get ready it'll pick up," said Ukyo as she worked on another customer's order.

"HEY!" said some guy running their way. "Some idiot just cut through the fence and is heading for the Yamato!"

Ukyo shook her head as the two MPs ran off in the indicated direction. Like these were her ONLY plans. She'd seen that the ships had artificial gravity. It would make sense to put that on the space colony too.

Which meant that the greatest okonomiyaki chef in Japan might yet become the first okonomiyaki chef in SPACE.

Wouldn't THAT be a selling point! Have to get a picture to hang on the wall or something.

* * *

"Thrusters at station-keeping," said the new Captain of the _Hood_ as he stood up from his chair.

Well, actually, floated up was more the case. The _Hood_, the British flagship of their new Space Patrol Service (tentative title - they were still hashing it out now that it was all public) had lost artificial gravity and no one was quite sure how to fix it. Except maybe the dog, but everyone was afraid of how it would look on the telly to go consulting the dog on technical matters.

"Science department is ready to launch probe," said the comm officer.

"Launch when ready," said the Captain.

"Probe launch, aye," said the comm officer.

"What exactly is the probe?" asked the ship's doctor.

"Apparently there's an electromagnetic sort of 'tube' between Io and Jupiter," said the Captain. "The science boys think that particles might have become trapped by such means. Didn't think it would be an interest of yours, Doctor Jones."

"It's not," admitted Doctor Jones, nodding towards one of the displays. "I'm trying to get a handle on all this since it looks like we'll be in space regularly."

"Ah, much like the rest of us," said Captain Tennant. "Well, this shouldn't be too bad. Purely scientific research."

"Except that we are a rather heavily armed warship, created by taking an old space freighter of the caniforms and cannibalizing an old British warship plus what we could put together in a couple of weeks," pointed out Doctor Martha Jones. "We've still got pieces of ship where we don't know what the mechanism was mean to do."

"We could always ask the dog," pointed out Captain Tennant.

"I have a little difficulty in asking a dog, even a robot dog, even a robot alien dog, about how to work something in MY sickbay," complained Doctor Jones.

"He might not know anyway," said the comm officer. "We've got scavenged tech aboard from that Silver Millenium stuff."

"Well, that's right out then," said Doctor Jones. "Can you picture me twirling around, wearing some cheerleader outfit?"

Brief silence.

"Oh, cut it out you lot," grumbled Doctor Jones.

* * *

"So basically the treaties involved with the machine intelligences left over by the caniform species involve recognizing them as individuals?" asked Senator Tezuka (D-Hawaii) as he sat back in his chair. "I move that we adjurn for the day after that, as this IS a factfinding meeting and, well, we've an awful lot of facts found that need to be digested."

There was a general murmur of agreement from the gallery and across the nation from various viewers.

"Yes," said Shion Uzuki, taking a cue and picking up a box about the size of a deck of playing cards. "This is a SAMI. Semi Autonomous Machine Intelligence. We use them in the SAMAS and other vehicles where a full Artificial Intelligence is either not needed or desired. It is essentially a supercomputer, in advance of anything we're currently capable of within purely Earth-based technologies, but we may be able to manufacture these ourselves within a year or two. These and lesser computer intelligences wouldn't need to be recognized at all. It is the more advanced intelligences that are the point needed for the BOLO to fully assist us. Artificial Person status, a legal definition - is what they are requesting."

* * *

What some did not know about Hotaru was that she knew that she was attractive. After all, plenty of people did think it was necessary to compliment her looks, so she got to be called 'pretty' more than once. Unfortunately, much of that came from individuals who treated her like she was still in diapers, or from those who considered her to be a 'little sister'. Of course, that was at least better than the guys who would smile a little too much when she wore a skirt, or watched a bit too long when she went swimming.

Yet, for all those creeps, she was pretty sure that she could be one of those beautiful women who starred in romantic movies... though that was due to the fact that she had chosen her one and only leading man.

The problem was that he seemed to be a bit clueless about what she wanted from him. Her fantasies of romantic dates and getting married to him in a fancy chapel were a bit stereotypical, but she rather liked them. In fact, provided that she could get him to actually see her as woman like she wanted, she was all for going in that direction.

That made it a bit more awkward in trying to keep him from going into the room, considering the fact that Guardian Saturn was trying to make them get... intimate, which she was _not_ ready for.

So, she found herself unable to come up with a stronger argument for keeping him out of the 'love motel' that the diminutive sprite had set up for them than blocking it with her own body. "No! You can't go in there!"

"But why?" Ranma asked, looking rather confused. "It ain't like I'm messin' with the place. Heck, I didn't even come here thinkin' ta go in...."

"I guess, but...."

"Yeah?"

"You can't go inside!"

"Gah. What's got ya so upset about this?"

"Dunno that myself," Guardian Saturn admitted, giving a small shrug. "I go through all that trouble in making a bedroom for her, and she won't let you in it."

Ranma's eyes went wide open. "That's her room?! Why would I ever wanna go inta a place like that?!"

"What? You're that bothered by going into my room?" Hotaru whispered, her eyes welling up with tears.

"No! That ain't it!"

"But you said...."

"It ain't against ya, or anythin' like that. I'm a guy though, and goin' inta a girl's room isn't... ya know...."

"A 'girl'? You see me as a girl?"

"Well, _yeah_. I mean, why wouldn't I, seein' as how cute ya are."

Slowly, a smile began to rise upon the Senshi's face. "You think that I'm cute?"

"Yup. You're too pretty ta even pretend that ya ain't."

"Oh, Ranma!" Hotaru cried out, running over to hug him.

"C'mon now. What's the matter?"

"I thought that ya didn't like the room because it was mine...."

"Why be so silly? I mean, I've been goin' inta your room since we were little."

"Then why not now?"

"Think 'bout it," he muttered, looping an arm around her to embrace her as he guided to to sit with him against a nearby wall. "What kinda jerk would go inta a girl's room without her permission, 'specially when she's tellin' him not to?"

"Oh, right."

"'Course, I'd be the first guy ta smack the creep who'd push his way in."

"That's so nice of you," his childhood friend chirped, snuggling into his side.

"Dunno 'bout bein' 'nice'. I'd just get too mad at them ta let it go."

"Then you do like me."

"Would I be 'round if I didn't? And who wouldn't like a gal like ya?"

Hotaru leaned her head against his chest and sighed. "Some people think I'm strange. And I don't have all those... curves the other girls have. A lot of the time, the guys look at them, and I wonder what that would be like."

"Don'tcha ever do that."

"Ranma?"

"Ya gotta remember that you're prettier than a lot of those girls," he told her, his voice as firm as his hold on her.

"I suppose... but they can do a lot of things that I can't."

"So what? Ya can do plenty more than they ever could. 'Sides, you're like a... moth."

His words made her nose wrinkle just a bit. "A... what?"

"Ya ever see some of 'em? Light little things that don't look like they could take a good breeze, but they can fly for thousands of kilometers just fine. And can be nearly as pretty as ya too."

"Oh, Ranma," Hotaru whispered, relaxing as she felt the warmth of being cared for. All the stress that had been built up in her flowed out of her body, and she relaxed against him, feeling really comfortable as she did so. In that utter safety, she had no reservations about closing her eyes, as she became completely at ease.

Letting her stay there wasn't really bothering Ranma, but as he felt her breathing even out, he began to realize that she wasn't about to move away from him. Yet, even as she curled up to him, he couldn't find any real urge to push Hotaru away. It just felt so nice to have her there, and seeing her smile in her sleep made his heart warm. Not that he'd been in a rush to do much of anything either, as it had been something of a stressful time for him too. What with the battle, and then training, he was rather in need of some relaxation too. So he put his cheek to the satin of her hair and closed his eyes, for what he hoped would be only a few moments.

"Well, I was hoping to get them to sleep together," Guardian Saturn muttered as she looked at the snoozing couple. "But this wasn't quite what I had in mind."

* * *

As she strode from her bath with the waters trailing off of her slim body, Bastet knew that she was an impressive sight. It wasn't the sort of thing that she could miss, given that it could be quite useful in manipulating most males, and a few females, and did tend to make them take notice. Of course, it pleased her to be seen as appealing, as it clearly stated how lovely her looks really were.

But then, they were the looks of her host, whose body she had worn for so very long.

Oh, it was no big surprise to anyone who knew the Goa'uld as what they really were, but it wasn't that they were advertising it. Still, the fact was that what those that they encountered saw was not really the Goa'uld itself, but a flesh shell that the creature inside wore to interact with the world as they would prefer. Some hosts were volunteers that willingly gave up their bodies to the 'goddess' that they so believed in. Others taken when the Goa'uld chose them, having seen something appealing in that form. And a few were merely picks of the moment, taken merely because the circumstances forced it.

In Bastet's own case, she wore the body of a young woman who had been a quite lovely child in her day. But now this body was forever young and beautiful with the care and attention that the System Lord had placed upon it. Perhaps the original owner would have been disturbed by how her own flesh was being used and responding to the will of another, but that did not matter to Bastet. She could cup and squeeze the firmness of her breasts before stretching out her arms to allow her slaves to slide her robe onto her and know that this body was utterly hers.

And she rather liked using it. Not only was she able to dress in any garment that she wanted, its beauty made it ever so much easier to lure unsuspecting males into a false sense of security. Even if she wished to ally herself with them, for however long she needed to, she could manipulate the relationship to her advantage.

That was exactly what she wished to do. In meeting with the Tau'ri she was taking a gamble, but it wasn't like she wasn't taking precautions. The one that she would meet would never know who she really was, and she rather liked playing such a game. Of course, there might come a time where their possible alliance might come out in the open, but it wasn't like she was going to have them giving orders to _her_.

No, she fully planned on getting the upper hand, and that would mean never submitting to human domination, never mind how it might look like.

Smiling to herself over the chance to get a figurative blade to stab some of the other System Lords in the back with, she allowed her young slave girls to annoint her body with oils.

* * *

"There's nothing in space for us! We need to concentrate on Earth's needs!" said Kinsey.

"Okay, how about asteroid mining?" asked Shion.

"We have mines enough here on Earth," countered Kinsey.

"You're kidding, right?" asked Shion. "Have you looked at the composition of asteroids? The British _Hood_ is currently on patrol near the Io flux tube and checking for the possibility of antimatter trapped in the magnetic stream."

"I'm the one asking the questions here," Kinsey coldly told the upstart scientist. "It is the irresponsible actions of those who brought us to this sad state of affairs that is the issue here."

"'sad state of affairs'?" asked Shion. "We just beat off an alien invasion!"

"Shion," said KOS-MOS in her usual emotionless manner. "I have been monitoring several broadcast media as they report on this hearing. What is an 'otaku'?"

"Sort of like a geek, but with a Japanese bent," said Shion. "I told you about geeks, that one researcher I referred to the other day. Why?"

"Because there is a woman on one station railing against the development of gynoids like myself due to interest developing within the subculture 'otaku,'" said KOS-MOS. "It appears that I have gained a 'fanclub' and am now researching this concept."

"I'm still here, you know," said Senator Kinsey.

"Good for you," said Shion, not indicating whether she was talking to Kinsey or KOS-MOS.

"You yourself feature prominently in such details, and they reference to you as a 'poster girl for geekdom' - tone would indicate this was meant as an insult," stated KOS-MOS.

"Uhm, right," said Shion, not sure what to make of that.

"The invasion was the result of a lack of diplomacy anyway," said Kinsey, deciding to just bull through this.

"Interesting," said KOS-MOS, apparently ignoring Kinsey. "There is also a fascination with the SAMAS, cyborgs, and similar technologies by these same groups."

"Excuse me," said Sailor Pluto, standing up. "With all apologies to this group, I have just become aware of something else that I must take care of."

"We're not finished here yet," said Kinsey. "We still have fifteen minutes."

"Is there a problem, Miss Pluto?" asked Tezuka almost at the same time.

"The _Hood_ just found Io Castle," said Sailor Pluto, inclining her head towards Senator Tezuka before vanishing.

* * *

"What IS that?" asked Captain Tennant as a sensor "ghost" shimmered in the screen.

"Whatever it is, it's got an oomphing lot of power available to it," said the helmsman. "It's also not visible in the normal spectrum, only as a gravitic anomaly and through the EM distortion around it."

"Well, it hasn't acted hostile yet, so let's return the favor," said Captain David Tennant, UK Space Patrol (a hopefully temporary name though it was better than calling the Hood an 'Alliance Space Ship' - which everyone serving ON such a ship hoped would not become an official acronym.)

"A wise choice," said an unfamiliar voice as the doors opened to let someone in.

"SECUR- belay that," said Captain Tennant as he tried to get his heartrate back under control. "You really shouldn't do that with ARMED people who are easily startled you know."

"Old habits are hard to break," said Sailor Pluto with a shrug. "That's Io Castle, belonging to Sailor Jupiter by the way. I'll have to get the Senshi to activate their castles at this point."

"Oh, it's one of yours then," said Captain Tennant, straightening his uniform and returning to properly British aplomb as best he could. Which was actually pretty quickly and thoroughly. "Well now, that's better. It could have been Goa'uld or something after all. If I might ask, what actual purpose does it perform?"

"You might ask, but I'm not an engineer," said Sailor Pluto. "How it functions is not in my field of expertise, nor am I aware of all the purposes they were constructed for. Mainly it acts as a power amplifier for the Senshi. They were all shut down ages ago when the Silver Millenium fell. They're also able to do some system defense functions, which I think may be to our benefit at present."

"Oh? Great big guns or forcefields or something?" asked Captain Tennant, a little concerned lest his ship accidently trigger something like that.

"Well, sort of, kind of, mostly, more or less," vagueified Sailor Pluto.

"Like the 'air of mystery' do you?" asked Captain Tennant.

"Yes, actually," said Sailor Pluto with a wink as she turned and exited the bridge again.

"Why do I get the feeling that if I talked to the guards outside that hatch that I would be told no one has been in or out that door?" asked Captain Tennant of Doctor Martha Jones.

"Actually, I get the same impression," admitted the Doctor.

* * *

She trusted her friends completely and knew that she wouldn't hesitate to go into a fight with them at her side. Beyond the fact that they'd already fought together, she had gotten to know them, and she liked what she saw. They might not have always been the most skilled individuals, but they cared about each other, and she knew that she could depend on Ami's brains, or Usagi's big heart.

But Rei Hino was still too much of a cynic to trust anyone that she'd just met, even if that person came along wearing a sailor fuku. "And just why should we believe you?"

"That is a good question," Sailor Pluto admitted with a small smile. "I wouldn't blame you for having some concerns."

"Good to hear, but that doesn't exactly answer my question."

"True...."

"Would you stop with the mystery crap already? It's getting to be a pain."

"Rei-chan..." Usagi whimpered.

"We can't slack off on this, dumpling head. Who knows where this woman could have come from? Just letting her talk like this isn't getting us anywhere," the raven haired girl growled, planting her hands on her hips and giving a decidely hard look straight at the green haired woman.

"But she came to talk to us as a group."

"Then why not say something _useful_ already?"

Pluto's expression turned just a little bit wry and there was a muffled thump as she leaned her staff onto the bare stones of the Hikawa Shrine's walkway. "That is a good point, and is actually what I should get to."

"Then why not do it? What's with the mystery routine?"

"When you've done something for as long as I have, habit can really set in. But it is important that each of you prepare for something important."

"Another battle's coming up then," Makoto sighed.

"Not at all. In fact, what I'm asking you to do is to help possibly prevent the need for such battles."

"I know that I'm not the best student around, but that doesn't really help me much."

"I apologize. Confusing you isn't what I was looking for. Rather, my hope was that you girls would head to your planets with me. Once there, you'll be able to claim what is yours," the green haired woman pronounced.

"Pardon me for intruding, but that is impossible," Ami commented, her brow furrowing slightly. "But wouldn't that be impossible? Ignoring the distances involved, there isn't much of a survivable environment on any of them."

"We wouldn't be going directly to the planets. We'll be revisiting your castles."

"'Castles'? We have 'castles'," Rei muttered irritably.

"Yes, in orbit around your worlds."

"But there is nothing there. Certainly no living structures, or the astronomers would have located them already," the cram school ace stated, shaking her head.

Smiling, Pluto held up one finger before the Senshi of Ice. "Not if they had not been both hidden, and powered down."

"Such a possibility could work, but from what I understand, it has been thousands of years since this machinery was operational. That may have drastically changed over the centuries."

"Yes, but they are more than likely in a usable format. The only problem is that we will need you to get them 'turned on' so to speak."

"And what exactly would that get us?"

"You must understand that I am not an engineer, so all I know are generalities." A light of amusement began to spill into Pluto's gaze. "But from what I do know, they have defensive shielding that can help to protect the solar system, power enough to blow away enemy ships, and even a little helper that will assist you."

Rei just raised a single brow. "Is that what you are? A 'helper'?"

"Something like that."

"How can we be sure about that? For all that we know, you could be some sort of imposter."

"Have faith. Besides, it's almost impossible to get the Senshi mantle away from its rightful owner."

"Hard fight?"

"Even harder when the powers tend to come with us when we are reborn," Sailor Pluto answered, letting the Garnet Orb glow with mana.

"Ah, gotcha...."

"Besides, if it had to be done, I would step in to protect you and the others from enemies... even if I had to break the rules to do it."

Now _that_ got Rei's respect, and the shrine maiden nodded solemnly in understanding.

"Then we're going?" Usagi murmured, looking around expectantly. "Good. I want to see what my castle will be like."

* * *

Nervous twitching wasn't what one wanted to see from someone capable of firing energy blasts that could blow massive holes in enemy starships, but when the individual in question was a young and delicate looking girl, that wasn't such a problem. That didn't change the fact that she was a bit uncertain at the moment, and seemed to be really embarrassed. In fact, shrinking in on herself and hiding in a corner seemed to be rather good at the moment.

Not that Guardian Saturn had taken much of a note of that fact. In fact, she was very nearly doing a bit of a dance, and had been ever since she'd seen Hotaru and Ranma blush as they woke up cuddled together. In between the wolf whistles and cat calls, it was quite clear that she was celebrating just a bit, and wasn't about to let it end there. As such, she was bumping them closer together every so often, clearly pushing them together.

This... did not sit well with Ranma. No matter how much she apparently wanted to be with him, he was against the idea of anyone causing her to be troubled. When he saw her trembling of her expression, his protective instincts reared their head, and anger burbled up inside of him. He wanted to make it stop, and hated the fact that she seemed to be getting humiliated by what was going on.

The loud pops that echoed through the corridor in response to his emotions didn't come from blood veins or the cracking of his knuckles as he flexed his hands.

Guardian Saturn, jolted out of her reverie by the sudden sounds, detected the sudden upswelling of energy in the hallway, and recognized that she should back off, allowing Ranma to take Hotaru away with her unmolested.

For a moment, the Senshi didn't understand what was happening, but when she did, her blush went from embarrassment to pleasure, knowing that things would be alright.

* * *

"Okay, so this isn't exactly the most fun that I've had," O'Neill grumbled, tapping his fingers on his rifle.

Daniel smiled at his friend. "What did you expect, Jack? It's not like we've come on a vacation."

"Something more. Something grander. Something... that didn't have much sand."

"True enough," the archeologist admitted, glancing around at the dunes nearby. "It does seem isolated."

"Exactly. How did you manage to handle a place like this?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well, you are the big Egypt guy. I'd have expected that you'd have been bored staring at deserts like this."

"Never really paid it much mind. What about you? Never went to the Middle East? And what about when we fought Ra?"

"No time. Had plenty of people trying to kill me to keep me busy," the colonel admitted, and then shrugged. "And they had buildings."

"They're a secret movement. I'd kind of doubt that they'd be out in the open."

"Yeah, but you know what's really bothering me? I could have been on the Moon. The Moon!"

"You are standing on a world not your own, and have travelled to many planets over the time since your people have found the Stargate," Teal'c murmured. "Is that not more impressive than merely going to your planet's moon?"

"You could say that, but...."

"Yes?"

"I never really thought that I'd go to places like this. But the Moon? It was always just _this_ close."

"It's a childhood dream sort of thing," Jackson explained.

Teal'c tipped his head in understanding.

"In the meantime though, don't we have other things to worry about?"

Pressing his lips together, Jack blew out a breath. "Yeah, but we've been here a while yet, and we haven't seen anything of these Tok'ra guys. Whoever they are, they are lousy hosts."

"Perhaps we can fix that," drawled a new voice.

Twisting around so that their backs were to each other, the members of SG-1 looked around to see that a number of people, each wearing a similar dust colored uniform, had come up around their position. Each one was armed with a small hand pistol of some sort, and none of them looked too happy to have the interlopers on their grounds. They advanced slowly on the Earth based team, moving with the cool and calm of professionals.

"We would have greeted you properly earlier, but we tend to not desire visitors," the previous speaker, a man with dark curling hair, told them.

"That's something that we can understand," Jack told them, raising his brows as he did so. "But what if we don't want to go so quickly?"

"We can make you go... or allow you to stay for a very long period. As our prisoners."

"Now see, that kind of doesn't work for us."

"It was not a request."

"Come on guys, can't we talk about this?" Daniel asked, holding his hands up towards the newcomers.

The individuals in the sand colored clothes held their weapons out towards the SG team, with their apparent leader narrowing his gaze. "I rather doubt it."

"Listen, we just came to see about returning something to you."

"That is interesting, but I don't see what you could have that we would want."

"Ah, but does the name 'Jolinar of Malkshur' mean anything to you?"

As soon as the archeologist heard those words, the men threatening the team jerked in surprise, and were clearly thrown off their guard.

* * *

"[Go away]," said a voice that sounded like Sailor Jupiter's.

"This is Sailor Jupiter," identified the Senshi aboard the tel'tak. "You're my castle, right?"

"[This is Guardian Jupiter, of Castle Io,]" identified the disembodied voice. "[You're... you are. Oh, Mistress. It's all gone. All of it.]"

"There there," said Sailor Jupiter, wondering how you consoled a multiple-millenia old artificial intelligence. "It's all right. We're activating all the castles."

"[Has there been an invasion?]" asked the Guardian, shimmering into full existence as it came the rest of the way awake. As the Castle became visible, a small figure faded into existence aboard the helm of the tel'tak.

Guardian Jupiter looked at all the muscular guys in leather, looking like a very well-groomed and well-armed biker gang for the most point, and summed up her opinion of Jupiter's Jaffa quite simply. "[YUMMY!]"

"Eh?" asked Sailor Jupiter as her Jaffa were being ogled by a teenie-tiny version of herself.

"[Oh, Mistress,]" said Guardian Jupiter, apparently crying with one arm over her eyes in a dramatic pose, "[you've gotten lucky at last. It may have taken a few thousand years and DYING, but at long last you have gotten that itch scratched. You make me so proud!]"

"What is she talking about?" asked one of the Jaffa.

"NEVERMIND!" said Sailor Jupiter, figuring it out and not wanting this line of inquiry to go any further.

* * *

"[Activation in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.]"

The lights came on, revealing a vast library. Except some of the books floated from one shelf to another as Sailor Mercury watched. That and crystal spires which had text scrolling across them.

"[Mercury Castle, current designation: Mariner, Systems active. Minor difficulties with power feed array. Currently three Castles active. System defense grid at 20%. Six ships currently in solar system. Design unfamiliar. Requesting identity.]"

"That's Jupiter's tel'tak," said Sailor Mercury as a hologram zoomed in with a display of Io and Jupiter. She moved her pointing finger slightly. "That's the British spaceship, the _Hood_. Ally."

The point-of-view of the display shifted with dizzying speed, now displaying the Earth.

"That's a base being constructed at a LaGrange Point," said Mercury. "Those two ships are being used to construct what will be an Earth base. Allies."

Another blur as things shifted around.

"That one I don't know, but it's a tel'tak." Sailor Mercury paused. "I'm not really sure if it's an ally or not. Can you track that one without shooting it?"

"[Affirmative. Tracking unidentified vessel. Location: Near-Earth Orbit.]"

"It might be a spy," reasoned Sailor Mercury aloud. "I'd imagine that after their last invasion attempt failed, that they'd be wondering what happened and how. Or it might be one of ours positioned there in case there's need of a rescue. I'll have to ask."

* * *

"[WHO DARES DISTURB THE PEACEFUL SLUMBER OF THE GREAT AND POWERFUL GUARDIAN VENUS?!]

"Knock it off," advised Sailor Venus, who was slightly grumpy after seeing that Jupiter had buff and studly guards.

"Oh. sorry mistress," said Guardian Venus, popping up in the cockpit of the approaching ship. "i thought it was a good entry though. Would've made a good impression. Never get to have any fun."

"Yeah, yeah," said Sailor Venus. "Anywhoo, I need you active. What do you DO anyway?"

"Pluto still in love with the whole 'woman of mystery' schtick is she?" asked Guardian Venus.

"Yeah, apparently," agreed Sailor Venus.

"Okay, Mercury is the main power feed - solar energy, taps into the sun," said Guardian Venus. "She's also a sort of library, contains most of the data because the most inner planet is usually the most secure one. Didn't work that way last time, but you always prepare for the enemy you've already faced. We're the Sword. We usually handle threat assessment and stuff. Mercury's got a bigger general database, we're more oriented towards military functions. By the way - NICE ride."

"Oh, thank you," said Sailor Venus. "Well, that works out. I'm helping out the Earth military. Primarily Japan through helping out the United States."

"Ah," said the Guardian, "strategic alliances. Good. Castle Magellan is already sending some data in that regard. Unidentified tel'tak displayed."

"Eh?" asked Sailor Venus. "I wonder who that is."

* * *

"Deimos Castle?" asked Sailor Mars, stepping out onto what at least LOOKED like a marble floor.

"In some records it's listed as Phobos Castle," said Sailor Pluto with a shrug. "However, Phobos has a less stable orbit."

"Well, Deimos isn't very big, how can they hide a castle on it?" asked Sailor Mars.

"Folded space, also folded time, a defensive measure," said Sailor Pluto as she stepped behind a pillar.

"Well, how does... she's gone. Again. I swear," grumbled Sailor Mars. "Okay. Castle! I am Sailor Mars. I command you to activate!"

Dim flickering lighting changed to more normal illumination.

"That's it? That's all?" asked Sailor Mars.

"What did you want?" asked a little SD Sailor Mars.

"Oh, I don't know, some grand magical effect would have been nice," said Sailor Mars.

"Oh," said SD Mars. "How about holographic fireworks? I can do that."

"It'll have to do," said Sailor Mars.

* * *

"So each castle has a specialized role," said Sailor Neptune.

"That is so," said the little Neptune playing a piano. "Each is a power relay and collector, but when all the castles are active and in defense mode - we can each contribute power to a specific task."

"What is the role of Castle Triton in such a grouping?" asked Sailor Neptune.

"Castle Triton is among the outermost and provides one of the primary barriers," said little Neptune. "Sensors in the cometary debris field relay to our position."

"I expected something more artistic or elegant," said Sailor Neptune.

"Ah," said Guardian Neptune. "The whispers of comets and stardust are first heard by us."

"Which means the same thing, does it not?" asked Sailor Neptune.

"Yes, but it is more artistically phrased," pointed out Guardian Neptune.

* * *

"I've got to go pick up Neptune in a few," said Sailor Uranus. "Anything you need?"

"I am self-sufficient," said Power Guardian Uranus. "Thank you for asking."

"So what do you think of our current situation?" asked Sailor Uranus.

"That android girl is pretty nicely put together," said Power Guardian Uranus. "Her scientist friend is pretty hot herself."

"That's not quite what I meant," said Sailor Uranus.

"Have to wait and see, I suppose," said the Power Guardian. "This isn't at all like the last time, you know."

"More ships to monitor," guessed Sailor Uranus.

"That too," said the Power Guardian. "Better TV too. Did you know there was a channel dedicated entirely to 'speed sports'?"

"Oh?" asked Sailor Uranus. "Can you get it here and retransmit it to my apartment?"


	33. Chapter 33: Meet The Press

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything. Don't have money. Just written to hone skills and amuse readers. Originally written by myself and Kender_Sci over at the Anime Addventure.

Many of the crossover/fusions featured are just spice, there is no attempt to keep those particular characters in the mix. If you want to run with one as a story of your own, please e-mail and i'll forward the request to Kender.

Chapter 33: Meet The Press

* * *

One might have known that it was supposed to be a rather homey look to it, but it wasn't exactly going to be taken as anything, save for a set. No real home had such plain furniture set in such an exacting way. Why, it didn't seem to be natural to have the chairs set up facing each other in such a calculated 'casual' way.

But then the set designers had set things up to give a sense of professionalism meeting relaxation. Being perfect hadn't been the point. Rather, it was the need to give the show a sense of what sort of show this was supposed to be. They might have wanted to make it look good, but they didn't want to make it like they were slacking off.

The host helped in that regard, as he sat with a deceptive ease, ready to look nonthreatening, but at the same time, interested. Dressing in a suit was only natural, given the fact that he wanted to be seen as reliable. And years of experience had taught him to keep his calm under many circumstances.

In this case, that did help a lot.

She should have come off as more of a tramp than she did. Had any other woman tried to put on the same outfit, she could well have been seen as a slut. Her skirt was just a shade too small for being professional, and the way that the low cut collar of her blouse kept on flicking out of sight, it didn't look like she had anything on under her suit jacket. Add in how her long legs stretched out from under her skirt.

On Urd, the outfit looked damned good, and she gave it an air of sensuality that a lot of men suddenly realized that they wanted such a woman at their place of business.

"I'd like to thank our guest for coming on today's show," the host said to the cameras as much as his guest. "Miss... Urd, was it?"

"Yes, that is my name."

"I see. And you claim to be an alien."

"'Claim' nothing. That is exactly what I am. What else would you think that I would be?"

"Well, when the common man thinks of aliens, they think of creatures like little gray men."

"Oh, we have those."

The host blinked slightly before leaning in with a frown. "But how can that be?"

"Parallel lines of evolution after a split between a single species. Long ago, we had a disagreement over what we should do to advance our race, and half of us wanted to tinker with machinery, and the others decided to go with more of a spiritual path."

"Then your people separated into two species."

"Something like that," Urd allowed as she crossed her long legs, allowing one high heeled shoe to hang over the other, inducing much pleasure in many of the men watching.

* * *

"Mister Harriman, isn't this a bit much?" General Hammond groused as he glanced over at the pile of papers that the other man had just dropped onto his desk.

Harriman tried to show his sympathy as much as possible, knowing that he could commiserate with his superior. "Sorry sir, but with the Castles being activated, data is being sent our way, we're getting a lot of work."

"I can understand it, and even support it, but there is one thing that I don't understand."

"Sir?"

"Why is it all coming to me?"

"Ah, that's simple, Harriman revealed.

"And what would the explanation be?"

"Well, with your past history, it seems that you're the contact that the Senshi have with our government."

"Not what I expected when I signed up for the Academy all those years ago, but I'll take it," the general sighed.

* * *

"Why do you look so human if you're actually from an alien planet?" asked the host.

"Why not?" asked Urd pleasantly. "We constructed these bodies in order to interact with you, if you went down to the DNA level you'd find less than a 3% difference."

"Constructed?" asked the host. "So what do you look like normally?"

"We are beings of light, well along the route to Ascension, though we retain enough of our material beginnings to remain anchored," said Urd, making an offhand gesture. "Ah. The Senshi are bringing their Castles online. Good. That'll give this planet an extra level of protection."

"If we can get back to you being aliens?" asked the host, not that he didn't think that something regarding the Senshi was uninteresting.

"Oh yes, quite," said Urd. Another gesture brought up a series of images. "These are the alien species that Earth has encountered so far."

The hologram showed a snaky looking thing that had a mouth that opened in four directions as it snapped at the host.

"This is a Goa'uld," explained Urd, ignoring the way the host had momentarily lost his aplomb. "Usually they find a host body to infest and then control it. They like humans for that purpose. They've visited Earth in the past on several occasions, harvesting what they saw as the choicest selections before returning to their little squabbles out in space. There are currently two major factions. The System Lords is the main one, and is the group that has found itself at odds with your own forces. Then there is the Tok'ra, which is a minor group that has some major philosophical differences with the System Lords. As I understand it, the Tok'ra are now meeting with some of your own military forces regarding mutual alliances and such."

"They are?" asked the host, poking at the insubstantial image.

"Right," said Urd, making another gesture.

The hologram shifted to show a sort-of "Roswell alien" who was sitting in sort of command-chair.

"This is the Aesir branch of my own species, what most people know of the Asgard," said Urd. "They've gone a technological route similar to your own. They can't aid humanity too much because of treaties, the same with my own Vanir branch, but we're both your allies to the extent that we can get away with."

"I see," said the host. "What is the natural form of the Vanir?"

"Not going to simply let it go, are you?" asked Urd, standing up. "Very well."

* * *

Power Guardian Mercury noted the minor surges in power and then tracked them out.

The power seemed to come from everywhere and anywhere. Because they were so tiny and so fleeting, she couldn't get a precise fix.

Then came a slightly higher power fluctuation, and she was able to get a more precise fix on exactly where the power was going.

"This one is also an Earth ship," said Sailor Mercury, still going through the database of scanned objects not currently under power.

"This is an interesting transmission from the planetary surface," noted Guardian Mercury.

* * *

Urd sat back down. "Satisfied?"

"Wha-what-what?" asked the startled-looking host. "You?"

"One black wing, one white wing," said Urd. "That's because the Vanir are themselves split. There's the Vanir proper and then there's a rebel faction which developed. The sort that goes that 'power is meant to be used' sort of thing? My mother is of THAT faction, my father of the main faction. I contain both the Light and Darkness within me. I suppose that's why I find humanity so fascinating, as your race also has its conflicts with the darkness within you."

"I see," said the host, visibly getting himself back under control.

"Then there's these," said Urd with another gesture. Images of a huge tank were followed by KOS-MOS and Bonaparte and robot dogs, finally by what were obviously robots fashioned in the vague image of a little girl. "An ancient race built Artificial Intelligences, and these have survived past the destruction of that species."

"They're machines though, aren't they?" asked the host.

"Define life," said Urd. "They learn, they grow. They feel and they can form their own opinions. They can even reproduce, if they have the right software and hardware. This is actually a sticking point to their cooperation with your race. Until you can view them as being more like yourselves, rather than being like a toaster for example, it will be a possibility of them breaking off their cooperation with you."

"That might take some doing," said the host, checking his notes. "The whole machine-life question is currently causing quite a bit of fuss in some circles."

"There's also these," said Urd, making another gesture. "They are called the 'Caitians' when using a human mouth. It's difficult to get the mouth sounds to work right without a muzzle. If you don't try to take it too far, you might think of their society as being along the lines of Imperial Japan, roughly of the time of their Disarmament. A little bit more technologically inclined, though they have a strong cultural bias against weapons that strike at a distance."

"Why are we even bothering them then?" asked the host.

"Because their planet has metal and mineral deposits that Earth does not," said Urd. "Add a bit of Viking to their culture to get a better feel of it, I suppose. They have a strong drive to fight, it's innate - written in their genetics. Their culture though states that only blooded warriors can ascend to the highest posts of their people. Now put that culture on a road to peace."

"Sounds stressful," said the host.

"Very," said Urd. "Their own leaders have looked over the resources lost to their constant battles and have concluded that it has to stop - yet not only their own history and culture but their biology urges them to violence. As long as someone is a more blooded and capable warrior, they can recognize that and accept them as an authority. Now along comes a group of Earth military with powerful weapons, all of them blooded warriors who are getting into a battle of such scope that the Caitians couldn't even conceive of it before Earth contact."

"So they're sort of space samurai cats?" asked the host, blinking as he looked over the lifesized holograms.

"Something like that," said Urd, allowing that common humans may need things simplified to that level.

* * *

"Mu Ori?" asked Daniel Jackson.

"You know what a binary star system is? That's a double binary," explained Jack O'Neill.

"Well, that certainly explains why it's on the list," said Daniel. "How many star systems ARE there in this list?"

"Roughly as many as there are stars in the sky," observed Teal'c.

"No, if you combine the ones from the international astronomer's groups, the ones for specific countries, and the ones from private industries - you'd probably be able to boil it down to a few hundred or so," Jack assured them.

"All of which boils down to our NOT going to the moon on schedule," said Daniel. "One delay after another."

"Why did you want to go to the moon anyway?" asked Jack. "Me - I can understand. I've been into astronomy for years. Why you?"

"I am bringing my golf clubs," Teal'c informed them all.

"Oh, I don't know," said Daniel, acting nonchalant. "Maybe writings from multi-millenia old civilizations?"

"You suppose any of those 'Senshi castles' has a library?" asked Jack.

_Twitch_ went Daniel's expression. "Oh. I'm sure not. The description I heard indicated that they're just power relays or something."

"Or something," said Jack.

"Indeed," said Teal'c. "Their technology does not follow the patterns of your own, nor that the Goa'uld utilize. Making too many assumptions might be... unwise."

"Yeah, odd isn't it?" asked Daniel. "I mean we go out to meet alien species, but one of the strangest ones we've encountered is native to here. Makes me wonder if the universe has anything stranger to hit us with."

Jack winced. "I just hope the universe doesn't take that as a challenge and respond."

"Don't be silly," said Daniel, sipping on his beer as he checked another sheet.

"I've been meaning to ask," said Harriman. "Why are you drinking beer on duty?"

"Exposure to radiation," said Jack. "We need to rehydrate, take potassium pills, and we also need to, uhm, pass large amounts of liquid."

"Cheers," said Daniel, getting a slight buzz by this point.

* * *

"Good thing you can teleport," said Ranma, checking the window to get a better idea of where they were. "Looks like Tokyo."

Hotaru just stood there, perfectly still. Her eyes wide and taking in the room's decor. "..."

"Well, we're not in that castle of yours, and I don't see that little pixie version of you - so I think we got away."

Hotaru remained silent. If she were any more embarassed, she felt she might just spontaneously combust. Of all the places to teleport to, this was NOT what she would have chosen. Not at all.

They were in a love hotel after all.

* * *

"Shiskabooboo, Shiskabooboo," said the robot girl, striding into the lab.

"Right here, my lady," said a large robot-looking robot.

"I want to see dolphins, Shiskabooboo," said the robot girl.

"There are no dolphins, my lady, they are a myth, and by the way, my name is Gedachtnis," said the robot-looking robot.

"They are a what, Shiskaboo?" asked the robot girl.

"Myth, my lady," said Gedactjs.

"The archive has pictures of them," pointed out the robot girl. "They are good to admire and good to eat."

"There are so many things wrong with that statement, my lady, that my forty-seventh coprocessor just overheated," said Gedachtnis.

"Shiskabu'bu'bu'bu'bu." The robot girl slapped herself in the cheek to shut off the stuck sound. "What of the images then? The sound files? The moving pictures that are accompanied by sound? Next you'll be telling me that there is no such thing as humans."

"..." said Gedachtnis, making a sound like many relays opening and closing.

"I wish I had a pet human," said the robot princess.

"I regret to inform Drossel von Klugel, princess of the Klugel Machineworks, that humans are a myth," said Gedachtnis.

"Nah nah nah, not listening," said Drossel, hands over her ears.

"I wish that humans DID exist," said Gedachtnis. "Everything would make so much more sense if the Ancients actually existed."

"Then I could have a pet human," said Drossel. "Or maybe a dolphin."

"Unlikely, my lady," said Gedachtnis, "yet look at what our teams have unearthed. We have set it up in the courtyard."

Drossel looked. "That's a big ring."

"Yes, my lady," said Gedachtnis.

"I think I accessed some data that humans wore rings in their ears..." said Drossel.

"I don't believe it was that kind of ring, nor that the mythical humans were quite that big," said Gedachtnis.

"Good, I'd have to have a bigger courtyard for my pet human," said Drossel.

* * *

"We have signal," said a General in the JSDF, putting a forty-seven page report on the desk of the DIET member and then stepping back to stand at attention.

"Why does this have to be such a thick stack of paper?" asked the DIET member. With a sigh she sat back at her desk and regarded the middle-aged but still quite fit General. "I get stacks like this from other members of the DIET, and on relatively straightforward legislation. Why can't this be more simple?"

"The military learned this sort of thing from politicians," opined the General.

"Can we get to the basics?" asked the DIET member. "Let down the wall of formality just a bit? I'm Natsuko Oogami."

"I know, Oogami-san," said the General, relaxing just a bit. "There is a signal from the Large Magellanic Cloud which we picked up using the alien radio devices that were part of the equipment we used to make the Yamato."

"What kind of signal?" asked Oogami.

"Distress signal," said General Taiga. "That much we've decoded. We've also determined that it was sent approximately thirty years ago. and has been repeating."

"Thirty years? No chance of actually managing a rescue even if we can reach the Magellanic Cloud," pointed out Oogami.

"Not likely, though we can't rule it entirely out," said General Taiga.

"What about the Yamato? How big is it? What kind of weapons?" asked Oogami.

"Excuse me, Oogami-san?" asked the General.

"My grandfather worked in the military," said Oogami. "I believe he even went aboard the original Yamato briefly, though it was only mentioned in his notes."

"Ah," said General Taiga. "The new craft has similar dimensions. 62,000 ton mass. It would take half a year, from what I understand of her speed, just to reach the Cloud. A full year for a round trip."

"Whereas you're needed for system defense currently," agreed Oogami. "So, that brings me to an important question."

"Yes, Oogami-san?" asked General Taiga, knowing that there had been something that the DIET member wanted and knowing likewise that the woman was highly placed enough that she could make funding for the next year either more difficult or easier depending on her whims.

"My son was hoping to get a tour of the nonclassified areas of the Yamato," began the governmental official.

The General didn't smile. He hadn't played poker for as many years as he had without developing that skill. "I think something can be arranged."

* * *

As he stood at the field where his equipment was ready to be shipped out, Gauron smiled thinly. It wasn't that he didn't like what he was seeing, as he rather enjoyed traveling to where the next place where he would hunt his victims. For him, it wasn't the sort of job that one did simply because he was being paid. This was what lived for, and he wasn't about to complain about it. Getting paid for doing what he liked was something that a lot of people wanted to have for themselves, but most people never got an opportunity to enjoy.

Yet, that was what he was getting to see at that very moment. The breeze brushed over his skin like the sheet being dropped over the corpses that he would be soon making. Things would really be getting going, and he liked the idea of giving excitement to a world slowly going into a slumber. Peace was so dull and boring that they needed a kick in the ass, and he was going to give it to them.

"Sir?" commented a woman near him.

Turning his head just enough to glance at the speaker, he snorted at the familiar face. "Yeah? What is it?"

"They're ready to get going, so they need you and your subordinates on board."

"I see...."

"Then I'll let you leave then," she told him, lowering her arm to hold her clipboard to rest on her hip.

"That would be good. I can't wait to get on my way to get some work done. Though...." he trailed off as if he were pondering something, but his expression said that he had his thoughts clear in his mind.

"Yes?"

"You wouldn't be glad to be seeing the end of me."

"That would be...."

"Good for you. At least you aren't as stupid as you look. It's just too bad for you."

"What does that mean?"

"I think that I'll take you with me," he sneered, grinning a predator's smile at her. "You might be a little peon working for the guys paying me, but they didn't say that I couldn't have a souvenir, and you'll be my good little stooge, now won't you."

Her expression turned properly terrified at the prospect he painted for her.

Something about the face that she made warmed the center of his heart, as he enjoyed the heat of causing grief in his blood. Seeing pain in someone else's face was wonderful for him, and as he turned his face towards the transport for his trip, he smiled over the fact. She obviously didn't like what he was telling her, but he knew that she was not about to risk betraying him.

What he did hope that he would be able to see his old friend again, as it would be ever _so_ nice to relieve old times with Kashim.

* * *

Lounging on her throne was something that tended to be the basic sort of position for a System Lord, but seeing as she had left the mothership at home, Bastet wasn't able to quite pull that off. She did have a smaller version of her chair though, so she was perfectly able to sit back and cross her long legs as she watched the monitors before her. The Tau'ri had communication systems that allowed for easy interception of their reports and entertainment programs. That was ever so helpful, as it allowed her to see that they were still a young race in a lot of ways. Just how some could see some boy with a bad haircut and a box of props could be amusing, she couldn't tell, and she wasn't about to see how some of these programs could be called 'news'.

On the other hand, she could tell that trying to intimidate anyone wouldn't be any good. Not only was the populace apparently being primed for a fight, they were aware of the truth regard what her race really was. On most worlds, they were shocked and surprised by what seemed to be an attack from out of a vast space of emptiness. Instead, these people knew that something was out there which wasn't exactly going to be looking to be nice to them.

If she was going to gain them as allies, she was going to need to get them to see her as less of a threat, and more as a possible asset. Perhaps later she could maneuver it into a position so that she could seize control, but right now, they needed to be consider her as someone who they could use for their own ends. It wasn't the most helpful thing to her pride, but that was a secondary consideration to the opportunity to extend her power and influence. She had no other choice though, since being here would dictate such a relationship to her.

Of course, the fact that there was a Tau'ri ship not only on a direct course for her vessel, but had a target lock on where she was had a lot to help in that decision.

* * *

Minako Aino was a young girl of fourteen. She was atypical of the Japanese in general in a number of respects.

Most young Japanese girls did not have their occupation (sort of) hit the newspapers.

Local Girl Makes Good

Juuban native Minako Aino was pulled from school and sent off to a special school almost a year ago. Speculation among her teachers and other staff was that her poor attendance and poorer grades made even graduating from Middle School unlikely. Anonymous sources have confirmed that the 'perky cadet' in the newest JSDF recruitment ads is none other than this same Miss Aino!

"Wow," said Minako, reading the news article. "It didn't take them long."

* * *

"At long last, the moon awaits!" stated Jack.

"Indeed," said Teal'c, hefting his golf clubs.

"Why aren't we wearing spacesuits?" asked Daniel.

"We sent a probe through, breathable atmosphere at the other end," said Harriman.

"Are you sure that's the moon?" asked Daniel.

"Sailor Pluto confirmed the coordinates herself," said Harriman.

"Well, then, the Moon awaits!" said Jack happily.

"SCRAMBLE!" said Harriman, looking at a computer screen. "We've got a cloaked bogie inbound towards Earth."

Jack said something impolite.

"Indeed," agreed Teal'c.

* * *

The group aboard the Yamato were all civilians, all had passed background checks. All were checked for cameras and other devices that might have caused problems.

Instead they'd get commemorative photos given that would show them on the deck of the ship. A nice little community outreach thing while the refuel/rearm/repair process continued and the Yamato couldn't go anywhere anyway.

Commander Susumu Kodai glanced at his clipboard then back at the group.

The son of Natsuko Oogami, Ichiro Oogami, was named after his grandfather or greatgrandfather. All the record that Kodai was reading used the word 'ancestor' and the scores indicated that he had served in the Japanese Navy back in the 1910s. Checking up on it further prior to the visit had been impossible as those records had apparently been sealed to a 'need to know' basis. There was also a note on the sheet in Kodai's clipboard, written in pencil, that Oogami had had a major positive reaction from a Millenial Artifact placed near the gangway for just such a purpose.

The next up was the slightly tomboyish okonomiyaki seller from one of the gates. She'd checked out too. Family martial artist, moderately skilled. One of the samurai families in the Disarmament that had apparently dedicated their martial arts skills to a more civilian occupation, just incorporating fighting skills into the mix. She'd been travelling Japan with her okonomiyaki cart for the better part of two years now. Her reason for trying to finagle an invitation onto the Yamato was simple and straightforward enough - looking for a competitive edge on her rivals. If she got any business because of a photo of her aboard a space battlecruiser, Kodai supposed she was welcome to it.

Then again, when alarms began to sound, Kodai supposed absolutely nothing good was going to happen after all.

"Secure all stations! This is not a drill! All personnel, scramble now!"

"Uhm, sir, we've got civilians aboard," said Kodai after hammering his thumb down on an intercom switch.

"Put them in the observation lounge, we don't have time to debark them. Possible enemy ship already approaching Earth orbit," came the gruff voice of the commander. "Then get to your post! We'll need every edge we can get in the shape we're in."

* * *

"Reply to the message," said Captain Tennant. "We are quite aware of radio lagtime but we are responding. Unfortunately, from our current position near Io - it's still going to take us a little bit of time to flip this ship around and accelerate to full speed."

"Systems are still undergoing repair, aft thrusters are sluggish," reported the helmsman.

"Best speed then," said Captain Tennant.

* * *

Bastet checked the cloaking field but everything was still running.

So that left WHY was she looking at a ship heading directly for her?

"Cloaked tel'tac, drop your cloak and identify."

This was decidely _not_ what Bastet had been planning on when she'd decided to come out to this system. When she'd decided to head out here, she'd thought that she would be able to get them to feel that they had the upper hand. Once that would happen, she would then submissively suggest that she link her forces in cooperation with theirs. With their powers working together, they would be so much more stronger, and able to take down a lot of the other System Lords. Then, when the moment would be right, she would rise up and take over them.

At the moment though, she was facing a situation that wasn't all that favorable for her. It didn't look all that welcome, and she didn't want it to turn out bad. But then again, she hadn't come to show off some sort of dominating force towards them. So, even though she hadn't been able to stroll in like some sort of impressive force, she could at least draw them in.

"I am the one known as Bastet, and I have come to seek the favor of the Tau'ri," Bastet murmured, folding her hands in front of her breasts.

There was a sense of hesitation in the voice addressing her over the speaker. "What sort of 'favor' did you think that you would get?"

"Oh, I wasn't hoping for too much. It wasn't like I planned on showing off or anything."

"And you do this by sneaking in to our solar system?"

"Ah, yes," she purred, and then gave a short laugh. "Much better than marching in with my armies, wouldn't you say?"

"I suppose...."

"Do not worry. I do not aim to cause your world, or those from it any harm. In fact, I'm looking to do quite the opposite."

"You want to... _help_ us?" came the incredulous tones of the one doing the speaking for the Tau'ri.

"You may call it that. What I hope for is to be a... 'neutral party', a safe port in the storm of chaos to be found among the stars.

"I see, and that means...."

She leaned forward, letting a small smile curve her lips. "I would like to suggest that we form an alliance."

* * *

"She can't be serious...." Captain Tennant muttered, slumping in his command chair.

The 'troubleshooter' along for the ride gave a small shrug. "Don't look at me. It's not like I understand what she's planning. Well, beyond the basics. "

"And what would that be, Mister Barrowman?"

"You know, the 'good old stuff'. Conquest, greed, and simple arrogance. These 'System Lords' do that sort of stuff well, don't you think?"

"All too well," Tennant allowed, pressing his lips together.

* * *

"Well, isn't THIS a problem?" asked Jack O'Neill. Not that he was miffed at yet another opportunity to go to Earth's moon collapsing. Not at all. He was bigger than that. "And why does this sound familiar?"

"This is a complete fabrication," said Teal'c.

"It almost sounds like an old movie plot," said Daniel, "and not a very good one at all."

"How did she get on my day planner?" asked Jack. "I didn't even notice that I had a lunch meeting with a 'Katarina Lyons' tomorrow until SHE brought it up."

"Oh that, apparently some captured agent had negotiated for their freedom when captured by the Goa'uld," said Samantha Carter. "It was deemed harmless and there were going to be NID agents and snipers surrounding the area."

Jack blinked at that. "And I wasn't TOLD about this?"

"No, nobody thought you could pull off the acting required," admitted Daniel.

"Everyone else knew about it?" asked Jack, now slightly concerned.

"We expected an agent of the Goa'uld," said Sam. "We didn't expect Bastet herself. We also didn't expect to have a detection system capable of penetrating cloaking fields."

"So we didn't expect a System Lord and we didn't expect to see them coming?" asked Jack. "Nobody told me that I had a business meeting with a Goa'uld agent and were going to have snipers looking over my shoulder?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much it," agreed Daniel.

"Well, gee," said O'Neill - putting considerable sarcasm into his tone, "thanks."

"That gets away from the point of what is it about this story Bastet spun us that sounds like a bad B-movie plot," pointed out Samantha Carter.

Jack, predictably, grumbled something mostly under his breath about his apparent role as sacrificial lamb.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Teal'c," said Daniel, "but the System Lords are often at each other's throats. They make alliances with each other all the time, but also betray each other as it becomes convenient."

"That is correct," confirmed Teal'c.

"So the Alliance is only good as long as she benefits from it," said Jack with a shrug. "Plenty of Earth governments like that, so there IS a precedence."

"'Human males' as breeding stock?" said Samantha Carter as she pointed at a particular section of Bastet's 'declaration of intent.' "Does she think we're all idiots?"

"She does not require 'all' to be idiots," pointed out Teal'c.

* * *

"What is it with alien females coming here and trying to steal our men?" asked Minako Aino. "Admittedly, the alien MEN we've seen so far haven't been exactly yummy-looking. Well, maybe that 'Konan' guy. Fireball. I tap two mana."

"I don't know about that..." said Hotaru hesitantly. "That pretty much kills my Leonin Elder."

"Neither of you know how to play this game, do you?" asked Shion.

* * *

"Doctor Jones, what have you got?" asked Captain Tennant after pushing the intercom button.

"Besides a smoking body," said Mister Barrowman.

"I can hear you, you know," said Doctor Jones from Sickbay.

"She's not disagreeing with me," said Mister Barrowman.

"Prig," said Ensign Tyler.

"If we can keep the comedy routine to a minimum?" asked Captain Tennant of his bridge crew.

"Right," said Doctor Jones. "Good luck with that lot."

"You needn't encourage it," said Captain Tennant.

"Minor injuries reported when we came about," said Doctor Jones. "Inertial dampers still offline. You might avoid going to warp or something. We pull any high g-forces and we'll be scraping some of the crew off the walls."

"Good enough then," said Captain Tennant. "Our orders are to take a stationary post near Earth orbit."

"Guard duty?" asked Mister Barrowman.

"Give us a chance to fix a few things here and there," pointed out Captain Tennant. "Including, oh I don't know, inertial dampers."

"So the call came through that the CoC in the DoD don't think our bird's on the QT?" asked Ensign Tyler with a twinkle in her eyes.

"How did I get stuck being the straight-man?" asked Captain Tennant.

"You're the Captain," pointed out Mister Barrowman.

* * *

"So we're agreed," said a member of the Trust.

"This Goa'uld is not to be trusted, but we might use the opportunity that she provides without trusting her," agreed a second member in that darkened room.

"I still disagree," said a third member. "I will abide by the decision of the majority, but the danger of continued cooperation is clear to at least some of us. These System Lords have been at the same sort of business we are - and for longer and with longer lifespans to practice such things. This in combination with their technological knowhow - "

"You are overcautious," said the second member. "They are overconfident and entrenched in their own habits."

* * *

"Tell me again why I can't just blow this off and let some 'diplomatic' type take this over?" Jack O'Neill asked no one in particular as he leaned away from the papers strewn across the table in front of him.

"It is really quite simple, O'Neill," Teal'c commented. "Those of your world who have not been in direct contact with other worlds will not fully understand the implications of this meeting."

Daniel gave a small nod even though he didn't look up from the file he'd been checking out. "Besides, would you want to leave this to them when you could keep them from messing up."

"I really didn't need an answer," the colonel muttered.

"But they are right," Samantha allowed.

"Great, tell me something that I don't know."

"Well, for all we can tell, it might be entirely possible that she'll have some sort of Goa'uld weapon or device to use on you that we haven't come across yet."

Settling for just scowling across the table at the blonde, Jack tried to look on the bright side of this, and found that part lacking just a bit. It wasn't such a problem for him to meet a System Lord, since he could go out and make the little snake leech thing dead. But the fact was that he was being made to negotiate with someone that he'd like to join forces with less than he'd like to stand in front of the Gate as it activated. Considering how little fondness he had for the parasites in the first place, this was going to be a bit of a problem for him.

If nothing else, he was not exactly pleased by the concept of being dragged off into yet _another_ headache.

"You know, what I don't get about all this is the 'need for men' concept," Jackson murmured, his brows coming together in confusion. "If they control so many planets, with populations on them, why take guys from here?"

"There is a flaw in that concept, Daniel Jackson. For access to be granted to every known world, all of the System Lords would have to agree to allow the others access to every domain. And considering their... aversion to one another, that is... unlikely at best," the former First Prime gently corrected.

"I see, but why try to ask us to hand over our men?"

"Why ask for any other resource? It would make Bastet's forces stronger. It is known that there are System Lords that seek to create humans with optimal abilities, all the better to become hosts or to serve as slaves."

"Well, that just paints a cheery picture," the archeologist drawled sarcastically.

"If nothing else, they are thorough," Carter murmured, thumbing through some pages before holding them out to her commanding officer. "They've obviously done their research."

"Hmm.... A couple of actors, that Congressman from the news, and a pitcher... Must not have seen him throw in the last couple of Yankee games. How did they find out about these guys anyway?" Jack commented as he went over the lists handed to him.

"Near as we can figure out, television. It's not that hard to look over our airwaves, after all."

"Great. I just hope that they don't watch some of the crap that's... oh man...."

"What's the matter?"

"Did you read this list all the way?" the colonel asked... as he pointed to a line that read 'Jack O'Neill' on the list of 'breeding stock, level - prime'.

"Guess that you're really popular, sir."

"No doubt, your exploits have spread beyond the confines of the worlds that you have already been to," Teal'c suggested.

"How wonderful for me," O'Neill muttered, dropping the paper onto the table. "But that still leaves me with some alien snake wanting to drag me off for baby making."

"Well, at least you know that you can make the women swoon, no matter the species, Jack," Daniel told his friend.

"Oh, that's just wonderful for me. If nothing else, I'm being targeted by a possible enemy, and that just makes me a stud. I don't know if it's worse to know that they want to shoot me, or that they want to capture me."

"Kind of a rock and a hard place there."

"Yup. And do you know what the worst thing is? If I'm supposed to breed, then they like what they see in me. Heck, they want me to get it on with some woman who's probably special in her own way."

"Well, to be perfectly honest, they'd probably want you to spread your genes as much as possible," Sam admitted. "In fact, the best way to insure your genes would be to have you sleep with as many women as possible."

"Besides, a lot of the kings of ancient Egypt had more than one... partner. Why, just look at Ramses the Great," Doctor Jackson revealed.

The colonel looked at them both before turning his expression flat. "Okay, I don't know if this is a good thing, or a bad thing. If what you're saying is true, then they'll want me to have sex with as many women as possible. That's just downright creepy, to be honest. Though there is one thing that I do have to admit."

"And that is...."

"I have to wonder about what else could be coming to bite us on the ass."

* * *

Standing on a rooftop wasn't something that Gauron wasn't actually all that fond of, but it served to give him the chance to enjoy some things that he liked to focus on. From there, he could spot where the filth and darkness had accumulated, watch others without being seen, and be able to get the drop on his victims when he had the chance. All in all, it was fun, and he tended to do it out of habit, than anything else. Of course, it also gave him a good view as he saw his equipment being unloaded for the operation as it was being set up.

Not that he was in any hurry to explain it to the girl with him. "Having fun, now aren't we, missy?" he drawled, giving her a nasty smirk as he did so.

The redhead didn't even flinch at she met his gaze. "Hardly. My task isn't to enjoy your presence."

"Too bad. Half the fun of doing a job like this is to enjoy the company that you keep. At least until you finish killing the little worms."

"The point isn't to kill here."

"Which disappoints you too, doesn't it, dear child?" he told her, bearing his teen in a fierce grin when she twitched slightly.

"And is that all you came here for? 'Fun'?"

"No, of course not. One really should try to not disappoint the client."

"And...." she murmured, clearly playing with some sort of weapon under her short cloak.

"It'll be great. A diversion to keep my old friend busy, while we swoop in and take the real prize."

"Just like that. You'd sacrifice those men?"

"Why not?" Gauron scoffed, shrugging negligently. "It's not like they have much meaning beyond being cannon fodder anyway."

"I see...."

"Do you know?"

"Of course. And you must know one thing."

"Yes? What would that be?"

"If you cross my mistress, you will not live to regret it," she told him, holding up a throwing dagger, allowing the edge to glint coldly in the light.

"You shouldn't worry about something like that."

"I hope that you're right."

"Me? I don't have to worry about something as worthless as 'hope'. But there is something that you should know."

"What would that be?"

"I like your eyes," he said with deadly seriousness.

She passed her emotionless gaze over him once more before twirling about on her foot and strolling away from him.

"This just gets to be more fun with every moment," Gauron laughed, letting himself enjoy the moment.


	34. Chapter 34: Assault At Jindai High

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything. Don't have money. Just written to hone skills and amuse readers. Originally written by myself and Kender_Sci over at the Anime Addventure.

Many of the crossover/fusions featured are just spice, there is no attempt to keep those particular characters in the mix. If you want to run with one as a story of your own, please e-mail and i'll forward the request to Kender.

Chapter 34: Assault At Jindai

* * *

Sousuke frowned and considered, ignoring the laser targetting as it played over his teacher's head. It wasn't easy. He twitched a few times as he overrode the immediate reaction.

Judging from the warning look Kaname was shooting at him, she noticed. That wasn't important though, another detail to erase.

Since his exposure to those Silver Millenium artifacts, he'd noticed his instincts getting almost supernatural in degree. Sousuke Sagara frowned as the thought crossed his mind. _Actually 'supernatural in degree' may be fairly accurate._

It was English class, so he could largely ignore the lesson. He was already fluent in that language due to so many members of Mithril speaking it as a second 'common' language despite their individual native tongues.

_The unease seems to be coming from outside the room. Nearby though. Hostility and madness? Multiple sources? Curse the imprecision of this ability! Close at hand. One source. Hostility though not killing intent? Oh, nevermind, it's the teacher._

Sousuke got up to read the passage, but everyone present would note the way his hand spasmed in some odd nervous twitch.

* * *

Wraith lowered the binoculars and pondered what had just been seen.

Sagara was a trigger-happy idiot. However, he was very very good at the profession of soldier. There was no doubt that if someone were to bodily throw Sagara naked into some conflict-ridden pesthole in some impoverished country that he would not only survive but emerge armed to the teeth.

If he used combat signals to indicate that he'd picked up hostiles moving into position, well, he'd already figured out that he was being watched and apparently had a good idea of the angle he was being observed from.

Wraith tapped a button that would flash an 'Alert' to the immediate superiors in the chain-of-command. The latest gadget to come out of Mithril, it didn't impart as much information as a cellphone or encrypted transceiver - merely set out a burst on a frequency that changed according to some complicated algorithm.

Scanning rooftops and the surroundings wasn't as easy as it would be at night. Then all you needed was IR and UV to determine...

Damn. Of all the times for Sagara to be right. Movement where there shouldn't have been anything. Some form of camouflage too. This position would be overrun in roughly four minutes. Time to upgrade the alert from 'Possible Enemy Action' to 'Imminent Attack' and find a bolthole.

* * *

_BLEEP!_ went something in Sosuke's schoolbag.

_BA-DUUUT!_ went something in the schoolbag of Kaname Chidori.

_GLARE_ was the response of a certain schoolteacher.

Sosuke stood again. "Teacher, may I be excused to save the school from an impending terrorist attack?"

"Mister Sagara, would you stop with the -" began Eri Kagurazaka, feeling her control over her students was in danger.

The window shattering as someone dove in was sufficient indication that control over the situation was no longer going to be a priority. Survival was.

* * *

"Confirmed, attack underway at Jindai High School," said the radio operator.

* * *

Most of his classmates, if not most of the school, saw Sosuke Sagara as nothing more than a semi-dangerous war nut. Near as anyone could tell, he was obsessed with military matters, and was more than likely to cause some sort of havoc during the course of the day. This meant that many gave him either a wide berth, or just a lot of wariness, simply because even if he wasn't about intentionally kill any of them, it was entirely likely that his apparent foolishness would result in all sorts of damage being done around him. But since most of his activities were fairly contained, they were pretty sure that he was more likely to be a threat to himself, than anyone else.

They got to see just how wrong they were.

One might have been more surprised by having men in ski masks rappel through the windows of the classroom, but many of them were staring as Sosuke slid out from his desk in the back and twisted around to the nearest of the attackers. Rather than get hit, or try to go in for a charge, he bent down low and twisted the man's gun arm to get him off balance. This allowed him to pull the would be terrorist around to face his closest companion. Pushing the arm so that it went in the direction that would be most effective, and got to see the second attacker's head whip back when the gun did go off.

Just as aware of the help that avoiding the kevlar vests these combatants were no doubt wearing, Sosuke pushed in the first man's neck before taking his sub-machine gun. With his first target now flopping on the floor, the young soldier crouched down and moved quickly, knowing that every moment wasted would mean more danger for his classmates. Even as they screamed and ran for the side near the hallway, he was already targeting a third man, who was apparently angry enough to go for a grenade. Not that Sosuke was going to give him the chance, as he was already peppering the would be bomber with bullets, causing the attacker to fall backwards out of the window.

All he could spare for Kaname at the moment was a glance that allowed him to see that she was quite understanding of the situation, and that the attacker trying to grab at her should have worn a cup.

Pleased that she was understanding of what was going on, he got to work defending his classmates, and hoping that his school wasn't going to be engulfed in battle again.

* * *

Gauron lowered his binoculars as he saw a body fly out of the window and let one side of his mouth come up in a toothy sneer. From his position in a nearby building, he could see that the fight had begun, and knew that his plan was working. Already, gunshots could be heard, which would bring all sorts of fun for the party. His dear old friend Kashim would be trying ever so desperately to protect his dear girlfriend and their classmates from the mean old terrorists. Those men would be trying their damnedest to get Miss Chidori back to their boss, which would mean that they'd have to crush the resistance with this attack of theirs.

All the scarred man could hope was that the idiots didn't harm the prize with their antics. Not that he particularly cared about the men themselves. Each of them was a simple thug hired for this job and were immensely expendable. Hell, he didn't expect any of them to come back, to be perfectly honest. They were merely meat for the grinder, and he rather hoped that they were giving Kashim a good time. That boy had gotten to be entirely too sedate in his role as a high school student, and this could give an impetus for the kid to get back to being the killer machine that he used to be.

Still, that was neither here, nor there, as he only cared about this attack as one did a spectator sport. Oh, he didn't mind enjoying a frontal attack from time to time, but this sort of job was simply stupid. Going in with guns blazing was not only a way to get needlessly shot, but would kind of ruin the whole element of surprise. And as much as he liked to have chaos as much as any other bloodthirsty predator, he understood that there were times when stealth was needed.

Of course, that was the whole point of this exercise, as it would keep the boy entertained... and distracted. The immediate task of survival would be keeping him busy, and the kid wouldn't have the time to understand the basics of the situation. However, once the smoke would clear, those whose job it was to pay attention to such things would then notice that this had been something of an amateurish job. It would have been much easier to get her on a school trip, or when she was walking around town, which would make them wonder why such a blatant attack was begun. If luck was with him, they might even think that more than one group had heard of Kaname Chidori, resulting in 'amateur hour'.

But he had other plans in mind, and was already grinning at the thought of what that would bring him.

* * *

The office was quiet and fairly empty, save for the several men who were standing there at the moment. None of them looked all that out of place, as they were wearing suits, and weren't doing anything that anyone would think was out of place. In fact, had the situation been different, they would have simply been considered to be officials at work.

But the sound of gunfire in the distance kind of killed the peaceful mood that might have otherwise filled the room.

Each of the men didn't seem to be all that put out by that fact though, and they worked diligently at what they were doing. Their movements were unhurried, and their demeanor calm, but one look in their eyes spoke of complete focus and intent. All of them were professionals, and they weren't of the sort to mess this sort of job up.

"Looks like everyone's run for cover," stated the man near the door. "Hallway's clear."

"Understood. What about you?" asked the other man standing at the moment.

The infiltrator at the computer let his fingers dance over the keyboard of the computer that he was working on. "No problems. Shouldn't take more than a minute."

"That's good. It seems to be that the hassle upstairs is helping us out."

"More than that, it's giving us all the time in the world."

"And you have no problem putting in those fake records?"

"Of course," the computer operator confirmed. "There isn't much security on this thing to begin with."

At the door, the man stationed there chuckled. "They have to worry more about students hacking the system to get good grades than guys like us."

"Too true."

"And that makes it so much easier to put the boss' kids in school," the apparent leader murmured, allowing himself a small smile.

* * *

When Kaname Chidori was attacked, there were those who took note of it.

Gauron knew this. Despite being eager to see blood shed and violence commence, he had more practical reasons for events taking place.

First, he was striking now because these killers that were young girls could be inserted into the school without much notice - that was the mission. The sooner the better.

Second, Kashim was running around playing high school student. Reminders that he WAS a wolf and not one of the sheep would serve to make things more interesting in the long run. That was a personal objective though, and not one the higher ups needed to know.

Third, the respondents could be mapped out by observing their arrival times and exactly what/who responded. Future attacks and plans could then take them further into account.

The reasons for doing it NOW included that some resources couldn't be brought to bear the way they could later. The production of power armor and robot suits was underway, but it would take months to develop just a First Response group - and then more months to train that group. To actually make it common enough that squads of power armor or 'giant robots' could be deployed across Japan, years if not decades away. Still, the best estimate from those in charge based on their spies' reports indicated that it would be another four months before the first squad of power armored SWAT units would be ready to go in Tokyo.

Movement caught Gauron's eyes and he quickly switched his scrutiny to another area being attacked. What he saw indicated that there were indeed other complications to be factored in during future operations.

* * *

"I LOVE this school," said Sakura Kusanago as she took an assault rifle away from a thug and then proceeded to beat him senseless with it.

"It looks like this one was just a stray, most of them are concentrating on another classroom," noted one of her classmates.

"Maybe they're just avoiding me," said Sakura.

"Who wouldn't?" asked one of the girls hiding under a desk.

* * *

The students were hiding behind desks or under them. The ones who hadn't closed their eyes or passed out from stress watched.

After the initial attack was repulsed, Sosuke dropped the confiscated weapon and looked out into the courtyard.

"Everyone - evacuate the classroom. The assailants are readying another assault." Sousuke didn't look at the bodies of the assailants, the only glance he spared was towards Kaname.

"Why did you drop the gun then?" demanded Kaname Chidori.

"Out of ammunition," said Sosuke, pulling the pin on a grenade and tossing it out.

"You're... you're going to use THAT?" asked Kaname.

"Affirmative, it needs testing after all," said Sousuke, as one hand touched the other wrist.

"'Testing?'" asked Eri Kagurazaka in a weak and unsteady voice.

He'd changed. Changed since the combat drop into an arctic enviroment guarding magical soldier girls. Changed since his own experience with contact with the weapons of Ancient technologies and magics. Changed since he'd managed to get ahold of a couple of items from MITHRIL after they'd become available. While he'd prefer more training in them, the weapon he'd requested and gotten through the channels to the ancient tank (whom he still wanted to meet) worked.

_VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT_

The weapon took what was known and decipherable of the weapon known as a Zat'nik'tel but without the reliance on materials or power sources not found on Earth. This was something Sosuke could and did insist on. Without the ability to service and repair it, any weapon would become unreliable and often at the worse time possible.

It looked like a fairly thick metal bracelet, one which had his name and rank on the inside where it wasn't immediately visible. On the outer side the bracelet bore a number of strange symbols that resembled some old Northwestern United States Amerind designs, an eagle being prominent.

"That's a gun?" asked Eri Kagurazaka, their teacher, twitching slightly as events began to catch up with her.

Sagara took a stance. Aim, shoot. Aim, shoot. Each pull of the trigger being answered with a bullet of blue lightning that cracked with a noise unlike that of a more normal gun.

Then something that horrified Eri Kagurazaka even more than Sagara (the gun nut/military otaku) pulling a RAY GUN out of nowhere.

Kaname Chidori tapping on a similar bracelet.

"No need," said Sousuke with a glance at Kaname, pulling out a battery clip and slapping another in. "This weapon is only effective to roughly 900 meters. I will need to try from another angle to get the commander."

"What's going on?" asked Kagurazaka, though no answer was immediately forthcoming.

* * *

Gauron lowered his binoculars, but he was neither smirking nor amused. "Kashim has a new toy."

"Whatever that was, it's capable of acting like a taser and knocking people out without killing them," said the operations chief in charge of these mercenaries.

"They know nothing to be concerned about," said Gauron. "You, on the other hand."

"What are you-" began to ask the mercenary before Gauron's bullet exited the back of his head.

"You could have identified me," said Gauron to the twitching corpse. "Nothing personal."

The insertion was done. Now all that mattered was taking care of loose ends and his own escape.

* * *

Outside was an expansive sight of... gray. From any direction that one looked, it was clear that it was full of nothing but a gray landscape, with only different shades providing a variation of color. That wasn't to say that it couldn't be impressive, as tall cliffs towered in the distance, and the landscape was pristine and untouched by anything other than natural forces. It just sat untouched though, and was fairly static in appearance, so those who needed life around them were sadly mistaken.

Fortunately, it did not appear that one particular colonel from Earth was picky in that sort of way.

"The Moon at last!" declared O'Neill as he spread out his arms.

"Indeed," said Teal'c and Sailor Pluto in unintended harmony.

As the Jaffa and the Senshi looked at each other with raised brows, Jackson grinned slightly at the colonel's behavior. "Are you sure that you're not overly excited, Jack?"

"Come on, Daniel. Think about it. This is _the_ Moon. The one and only, where only a few people have been. Armstrong, Aldrin, Conrad, Shepard... And now us. We're some of the only people who've made it here."

"You do remember that there was a whole civilization here back in ancient times, now don't you?" Pluto pointed out.

"Okay, so we're some of the few that have been here in a long time. But can't you feel the wonder of it all?"

"We have managed to go much further than this, sir," Carter commented... and then grinned. "I can see where you're coming from though."

"You can?"

The blonde gave him a wry smile. "Sure. I mean, you don't know how many times I used to look up at the sky as a little girl and want to come here."

"Besides, this is a place that's been in the human mind for centuries. Between tales of ancient gods, the development of the lunar calender, and the poetry written about it, this has been a major part of Earth culture for ages," Daniel put in.

"There is all that, with one thing to add in," the colonel commented.

"And what's that?"

"After all the hassles, obstacles, and delays that have come our way, we're finally here. So, I'm just going to enjoy it and hope that someone else gets the headaches from here on in."

* * *

Gauron looked at the girls in front of him and allowed a small smirk to curve his lips. It wasn't a pretty thing by any means, but then he had little care for coming off as appealing. His preferences were more towards killing and causing trouble, which were ever so much more satisfying. Others might have been concerned about what he was doing, but he was happy to do it.

Of course, it might have pleased those who were concerned with such things that he wasn't planning on harming the girls at all. In fact, he was relying on them to do things for him that would mean that they would take on a lot of responsibility and concern. That they were up to the challenge was something that he knew, which was all well and good. After all, they were killing machines, and he knew that they were fully capable of doing whatever it took to get the job done.

"It's a simple job. Go in under assumed identities, scope out the situation, get the target to lower her guard, and... collect her for the client's purposes. Should go like clockwork," he murmured, smiling at them.

"I understand, but...." one of the girls trailed off.

"What?"

"Should we be doing this, sensei? Shouldn't we just wait for a good moment, and then strike."

This was a girl after his own heart. "Yes, that would be good, but we've been waiting a while now, and can't wait too much longer. Besides, this could be fun."

"Understood. Will it be hard to go undetected?"

"I kind of doubt that," he told her, eyeing how her lithe figure filled out her outfit quite appealingly. "I really doubt that the boys there will be concerning themselves with that sort of thing."

"That's fine. Then there will be no challenges there?"

"Now, I didn't say _that_. There's someone there that should make things interesting. I'm sure that he'll be more than able to show you a challenge. If there's someone in that whole vapid little school that can actually put up a fight, it's Kashim."

* * *

He was still breathing hard as he had little desire to show off his stoicism to others. Trying to manipulate his look just to impress anyone else. Having lived in places where running water was a luxury, he had never been much of an ability to go see movies. Due to that, and with having personally experienced combat from a young age, he had little to do with being 'cool'. Instead, he was more prone to follow through with what would aid him best in a combat situation, as that would give him the best edge in survival.

Then again, the fact that Sosuke was also sweating had little to do with the fact that he was in a thrashed room that held a number of corpses that he'd made himself.

No, his current state of nervousness was due to the fact that his homeroom teacher was looming over him with her hands on her hips and a glare in her eyes. "Will you mind explaining what just happened, mister?"

"Well, I... um.... that is...."

"That isn't an answer! Speak up and talk coherently, would you?"

"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but I can't answer your question!"

"Don't tell me that you're refusing to respond. You'd better give me a straight answer!" she demanded, moving a hand so that she could waggle a finger in front of his face.

"I would like to, but... I lack information. There was nothing from the Intelligence division about such an attack being planned."

"I see...."

"That's excellent. Now, if I could, please allow me to go...." Sosuke began.

"No."

"That is... pardon me?"

"You heard me. Before you do anything else, you're going to explain just how it is that you not only have weapons in class, some of which are straight out of the movies, but wound up fighting... and... and... doing that!" the teacher demanded, jabbing a finger in the direction of some of the corpses that she'd just been trying to ignore.

"Ummm.... er...."

"And don't you think that you can just slip off on your own, Miss Chidori. You still have to explain what it was that went off in your bag, and why _you_ have weapons too!"

Kaname stopped in mid step and turned a sickly smile towards her teacher. "A-heh. There's a perfectly good explanation for this."

"Okay, so let's hear it."

Looking towards each other, the two of them silently considered how to handle the situation, but knew that it could be a problem to do so.

"Listen to me right now. Nobody leaves this room until SOMEONE tells me what's going on!" Eri Kagurazaka insisted, staring at each student.

* * *

Sosuke Sagara was sweating but the reason for that was not the terrorist attack. No, it was because an immediate superior was demanding answers that he had orders from his CoC to NOT answer.

Kaname Chidori wasn't sweating but was looking nervous and severely unhappy.

"WELL?" demanded the teacher. Her sweeping arm indicating the busted in windows and overturned desks, the dead terrorists, the scattered schoolbooks, the giant robot landing on the school grounds, the smoking craters in those same school grounds, the...

Eri Kagurazaka, long suffering high school teacher, realized her mouth was hanging open again and closed it with a little click. "OK. Who parked a giant robot on the school grounds?"

_Kaname, it's me._

"Tessa?" asked Kaname, recognizing the mental touch.

"The Captain?" asked Sosuke.

"'Tessa'? 'The Captain'? What are you going on about?" asked the twitching teacher.

_I've come along to oversee things. The pilot of the vehicle is Major Mao._

"Melissa Mao is piloting the giant robot," said Kaname to Sosuke. "The ArmSlave I mean. Tessa is with her."

"How do you know that? Telepathy?" asked Kagurazaka.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" asked Kaname, curious.

"I was kidding," said the teacher, realizing that Kaname was not.

_Someone's coming who can answer her questions,_ sent Tessa.

"'Tessa' is Teletha Tessarossa, you remember her, right?" asked Kaname.

"She's involved in this?" asked Kagurazaka.

"They must have gotten the bugs out of the palladium reactors," mused Kaname. "I wonder how they solved the problem with static electricity buildup in the induction coils."

_Oh, that was easy enough. The only problem is getting and refining the osmium components now. Well, that and the cost of the palladium itself._

"Eh?" asked Kagurazaka, not understanding Kaname's nodding as she gazed vacantly out the hole in the windows.

There was a brief silence, broken only by the sound of glass falling and breaking and some girl's voice calling out what sounded like a martial arts attack somewhere else in the building.

"I'm still waiting for an explanation," pointed out Miss Kagurazaka. "SAGARA!"

"I'm sorry sensei, but you don't have sufficient clearance for that information," explained Sousuke as he assumed a full attention stance.

"WHAT?" snarled the teacher. "What do you mean by that?"

"I'm sorry sensei, but you don't have sufficient clearance for that information."

"SA-GA-RA," began Kagurazaka.

"Enough," said a blacksuited figure as he entered, followed by four others.

"Who? What?" asked the teacher. A final figure entered. "You?"

* * *

"The Tau'ri apparently missed us," said one of the Jaffa, stepping over the tied-up farmer and glancing around the primitive domicile. "If our use of the Rings was detected, they would have responded before now."

"Surprise is on our side, which will make conquest of this world easier," said the lead Jaffa.

"There are twelve of us against twelve BILLION of the Tau'ri," said a third Jaffa from where he was standing by a window looking out through the drapes. "Without support from ships or our god, how will we accomplish this?"

"We are armed, and we are Jaffa," said the lead. "What can these primitive heathens do?"

* * *

"Ah, the moon," said Jack.

"Indeed," said Teal'c as he lined up the ball and prepared to use a nine iron.

"Uhm, with the lower gravity," said Daniel. "You realize that escape velocity isn't that great. Right?"

Teal'c turned slightly and despite the helmet one could tell that he was raising one eyebrow.

The ball sailed up and disappeared in the distance.

"Okay, time to go. The site is over this way," said Sailor Pluto, having not bothered with a spacesuit.

"You know," said Jack. "That kind of bothers me."

"That I don't have to wear a bulky spacesuit?" asked Sailor Pluto.

"That, that you aren't using a radio like the rest of us, yeah, little things like that," confessed Jack.

"Fine, I'll wait for you over there," said Sailor Pluto, lips curling into a small smile. "Be sure to pay your respects."

"Well, yeah, it's kind of a last resting place for a kingdom," said Jack. "Paying our respects to your Queen and all IS certainly appropriate."

Sailor Pluto raised one eyebrow briefly, then inclined her head before turning and walking off.

"I think Teal'c is rubbing off on her," said Daniel.

* * *

"As near as we can tell, this was essentially a test, and it was Gauron who was doing the testing," said Melissa Mao as she stalked back and forth. "He was positively identified in the area."

"'Gauron'?" asked the teacher, trying to remain calm and cool despite some of the people present.

"International terrorist," said Mao absently. "On Interpol's 'Top Ten Sociopaths To Be Brought In Dead And Dismembered' list."

"I'm sure Interpol doesn't have a list like that," said Eri Kagurazaka.

"Publicly - no," agreed some older foreign gentleman who had something that sounded like a Russian accent. He reminded the teacher of no one so much as that 'Doctor Quest' she'd seen on an American TV program she'd watched as a child. "Privately though - it's one of those inconvenient truths that some people are so inherently dangerous that killing them is the only option to avoid any chance of them getting free and killing more people."

"The Americans thought they could hold him, another mistake on their part," grumbled the blacksuit.

"Now now," said 'Doctor Quest.' "This is not the time for professional rivalries. They ARE our allies as well as yours."

"Allies?" asked Kagurazaka.

"Yes," said the distinguished gentleman, who then launched into a description that was not completely accurate but WAS an agreed upon second-level cover-story. "I am Sagara's commanding officer, Commander Kalinin of the Japanese Self Defense Force Special Branch - Aerospace Division 4."

"Then... the Yamato? The fight against the alien worms?" asked Kagurazaka, pointing one finger at a repeated problem. "HIM?"

"Yes," said Kalinin. "Sagara here has been in some serious battles for an extended period of time, and has been rotated to a bodyguard assignment for a VIP as a way of beginning his recovery to rejoin normal Japanese society."

"He's got a VERY long way," said Kagurazaka, though the idea that Sagara was suffering from some Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or some of those other mental illnesses that foreign soldiers got DID explain a few things.

"Yes, he was a deep cover operative," said Commander Kalinin. "In any case, we may have to relocate him and the person whose body he's guarding to a more secure location since Gauron found them."

"But who would he be here to guard?" asked the teacher.

"Classified, I'm afraid," said Kalinin, sounding slightly apologetic about that little detail.

"It's Kaname isn't it?" said Kagurazaka.

"Me? Hardly? I'm just the poor schmuck they contacted trying to get this 'raised by wolves' idiot into normal society," said Kaname with a shrug. They hadn't included her on the rehearsals of whatever BS was being slung. She'd just follow along as best she could. "What could I possibly have that they'd be interested in ME?"

"True, I'd expect your grades to be better if it was you," realized the teacher.

"The identity of the VIP must remain confidential right now, she doesn't even attend school here regularly," said the Commander.

"Tessarossa!" exclaimed Kagurazaka. "No! It couldn't be!"

"No, she's merely -" Kaname stopped abruptly as she tried to find some other role for Tessa.

"No, she's merely Sosuke's fiancee from an old family arrangement," said Commander Kalinin.

"I see," said Kaname. Yeah, that would explain... "WHAT?"

* * *

At one time, the structure had to have been glorious to behold, with a towering dome hovering overhead and grand columns lining the paved walkway leading up to the front gates. Giant pools of water had been created as a stately counterpoint to all the hard stone, and there were plenty of spaces that looked ripe for the placement of planters. True craftsmen had created all this, and there had been obvious care and concern placed over the entire complex by those who had lived there.

And now it was a broken and shattered shell of those once sparkling dreams.

Gaping holes broke through the solid surface of the walls, and columns lay snapped like trees that had been cut down. Any liquid was long gone from the trenches, leaving barren and dusty rock instead. Stillness prevailed here, and the absence of noise became a sound all its own. Everything was frozen in time, almost as if someone had simply taken the life out of all that this had been and left a dead husk in its place.

"Okay, now this is creepy," O'Neill muttered as he passed his gaze over the area.

Carter gave a small shrug of her suited shoulders. "Well sir, this place has been like this for a long time."

"It is in good condition, for what has happened here," Teal'c observed.

"That's because it hasn't been disturbed like we'd usually see," Daniel Jackson told him as the archeologist knelt down to stroke a gloved hand over what had once been part of a colorful mural. "Normally, you get all sorts of things that wreak havoc on a site like this. Wind, rain, lightning, animals, tomb robbers...."

"Indeed."

"But this still has faced some of its own dangers. Solar radiation and such," Sam apologetically put in.

Nodding, Jackson didn't even attempt to refute that. "I didn't say that it was totally unchanged. But this place is almost like its been preserved. In fact, I would bet that it'd be like we could see how the people left everything behind."

"You couldn't be more right," Pluto commented softly as she stood, almost as if she was leaning on her staff.

"I wouldn't...."

"It's alright."

"This must have been a happening place once," Jack put in, smiling in an obvious attempt to lighten the mood. "I mean, it looks like it had to be a great place to hang out."

The Senshi turned to face him and arched one fine brow.

"What?"

"It was, as you say, a wonderful place. I didn't spend all my time here, but I always looked forward to my visits. Why, I can remember one time I was walking this very path, and saw a couple on that bench so in love with each other that they didn't know that I was passing by. There were children playing by that fountain there, and several maids were chattering with each other so much that they were yelled at by one of their supervisors for getting in my way."

"Ain't that the way?"

"They'd been trying to figure out how to keep from bothering me and couldn't come up with a polite plan," Pluto murmured with a sad smile. "I was just there to have tea with the Queen."

"_Really_ the way things go. This Queen though. She nice?"

"And fair. A strong ruler, who kept an even and fair as best she could. Peace reigned, and there wasn't any hunger or strife in the whole Kingdom. Oh, she was not perfect, but who has ever been that? Sometimes she had to be harsh, but there was no other way. Her daughter was a kind child, sweet and gentle with everyone. I don't think that I've ever seen someone with more love in her heart, and she might have become the sort of ruler that was pure and just. She could have led with simply by being herself, with people wanting to follow her...."

In the quiet following words, no one spoke for several long moments until Daniel gave a soft sigh. "You know, it's been a fantasy of archeologists to have some sort of visit from someone pop in from a society they're investigating. This way, they could get the perspective of those who lived that life. All that we can really do most of the time is take what bits and pieces they left behind, and put together a puzzle to figure out what they were like. Sometimes we might be wrong, but at least we have some picture of the reality of those times, and we can fix it. And maybe that is better than this."

"Are you suggesting that you would rather prefer that I did not come?"

"Of course not. It's just that... Rather than get an image of daily life, habits and culture, we can only see that it's lost. For me, that's like being able to go to Pompeii and wanting to go back to warn them before what I see occurs."

"Only you can't do that," Jack added, his own regrets tinging his voice.

"Exactly. All that this was, and it's just... lost."

"I... thank you for your care and respect, Doctor Jackson," the Senshi quietly thanked him, and paused as she started to turn away. "It would have been a shame for you to have gone to Pompeii though."

"What? Why?"

"They wouldn't have listened to you, seeing as they had lived under that mountain for so long. As far as they were concerned, they knew all that there was to know about it." The woman turned with that comment, her skirt ruffling despite the lack of air to move it.

Teal'c tipped his head towards one of the ruins in respect.

Jack's posture in his own spacesuit was harder to read, but he apparently decided something, came to attention and saluted once in that same direction.

Then he and Teal'c began moving alongside Samantha Carter as they followed the one named Sailor Pluto, only realizing after a few steps that one of their number was still not moving.

"Daniel?" asked Jack.

"It just hit me," said Daniel.

"Ah," said Jack. "The difference between emotional knowledge and intellectual. Gotcha."

"Sir?" asked Samantha Carter, the bulky spacesuits not allowing her to read body language except in the most vague manner.

"She's seen Pompeii," said Daniel in an almost reverent tone mixed with something else. "I knew she was supposed to be the Guardian of Time and had been around since the Silver Millenium, but I just somehow never really made the connection."

"Oh," said Samantha Carter. "So?"

"Sam, the Silver Millenium as near as we can tell happened before the Agricultural Revolution of 8000BC," said Daniel.

"Long before," interjected Jack.

"She saw Rome fall, Pompeii get buried in the ash, saw the pyramids being constructed and the finishing touches put on the Sphinx," said Daniel. "She saw the first Minoan trade civilization destroyed when that volcano blew up. When Ulysses went to fight in the war against Troy - she was there."

"Indeed," said Teal'c, "and she did not take part in any of those events."

"And she's still got a pretty smoking body, which is currently waiting for us to get a move on," pointed out Jack. "Now, if you will..."

The spacesuited figures turned towards where the woman in question was indeed waiting, then began clumsily catching up.

* * *

"This is it," said Sailor Pluto eventually, coming to a halt and then sinking to kneel on one knee.

The spacesuited figures of SG-1 merely looked around at the broken columns and dust, then at the dias directly before Pluto.

"Is this an altar or a computer terminal or...?" Jack asked. "Cause I hate to tell you that these suits are NOT all that easy to manuever in."

"No," said another woman's voice. "And yes."

The figure was clearly a hologram as it faded in, whatever the actual mechanism involved. A transparent 1/10 scale figure of a woman.

"That looks like that Moon kid," said Jack. "Except grown up."

"My daughter, reincarnated," said the image. "Pluto? Who are these?"

"Humans from Earth and this era, who now stand up to defend their own world from vast menaces, my Queen," said Pluto, bowing her head.

"Uhm, so this is a ghost or something?" asked Daniel, trying to bow and then kneel and finding that Jack's comments about the spacesuits was entirely accurate.

"More an echo of what was," said the holographic Queen.

"Something like a telephone answering machine, only much more sophisticated?" Samantha suggested.

"My Queen," said Sailor Pluto, rising. "May I present these heroes of Earth?"

"Hmmmm," hmmmed Jack, otherwise keeping comments to himself.

"This is Jack O'Neill, of an Earth nation's military forces," said Sailor Pluto. "A student of star-science and special operative used to working behind the scenes."

"Ma'am," said Jack, miming tipping a hat.

"This is Samantha Carter, likewise of that Earth nation's military, but also a general scientist and is very accomplished in the sciences of the stars and planets. She and O'Neill are also accomplished pilots."

"Uhm, yes, Your Majesty," said Samantha, not sure how she was supposed to introduce herself to a dead queen.

"This is Teal'c, who has cast off the chains enslaving him to a race of alien parasites in order to free the rest of his people," said Sailor Pluto.

Teal'c merely inclined his body in a shallow bow, apparently unconcerned with whatever definition of being was involved.

"And finally, Daniel Jackson, not foremost a warrior but a scholar and linguist. He who seeks the lessons of the past in order to help guide the future."

"Ah," said the Queen. "That would bring me to the logical next question, Pluto? Why are they here? Admittedly, the view IS quite nice and there IS a hint that those two could be lovers, though frustrated by some convention I don't understand."

"Erk," said Jack and Sam, taking a further step apart.

"The Historian I can likewise see an excellent reason for being interested in dusty old ruins and a dead Queen," continued the hologram. "While the Freedom Fighter's cause sounds quite just, and I'd love to hear the details, I don't see the reason for his wanting to visit this ruin."

"To pay my respect," said Teal'c in his smooth voice.

"It has absolutely nothing to do with that little ball that shot over my palace and is currently heading out of orbit?" asked the Queen with her royal expression slipping into a less formal smile.

"Well, perhaps a bit," admitted Teal'c.

* * *

The Goa'uld had managed to get away from their doomed ship in the thwarted invasion. They were cut off from their god Heru'ur, from their homes, from their armies, and from much of their equipment.

"These golden bars with the white cream filling are quite addictive," said a Jaffa as he threw the crinkly wrapper off to the side.

"Those things are disgusting," said another of the Jaffa. "No wonder the Tau'ri are so soft and weak if they eat such vile substances."

A third among the Goa'uld growled some comment and fired a few rounds from his Staff Weapon into a police car as it came driving up with its sirens going. "We should attain better transportation before we conquer this City Hall."

"True," agreed the commanding Jaffa. "What about... that?"

* * *

"So this does what exactly?" asked Doctor Rodney McKay, wondering why HE was here among... alien humanoids who had symbiotes stuck in them.

The answer of course, was because he was available, he was a genius, and he WAS in the Refuge city at the time the Tok'ra had come forward.

"It is exactly what the name implies," stated Ming-na, the Tok'ra who had come forward. "A Transphase Eradication Rod."

"So you're saying it eradicates transphases?" asked Doctor McKay.

"The Goauld System Lords are currently fighting with the Retu, a species which shifts in and out of normal space," said Ming-na. "This device allows them to fight such things."

"What, they move through Kalabi-Yau space?" asked Doctor McKay. "They squeeze through the tiny collapsed subdimensions?"

"That's not quite it," said Ming-na.

"Can I see it?" asked Bonaparte.

"Of course, though we don't have many of these," said Ming-na, still not sure how to react to machine intelligences.

"Thank you," said Bonaparte, beginning to use sensors to virtually take the device apart while leaving the actual weapon intact.

* * *

For Daniel Jackson, the stories of those who had lived in the past were always important. He'd never had the contempt that some people did for other cultures, as he could spend days searching out all the fascinating little bits that he could find in shopping areas, be it an ethnic neighborhood a half hour drive from his house, a marketplace half way around the world, or a city on a distant planet. Wherever he went, he could be counted on to be able to connect with whatever culture he came across.

And right now he was going over to crouch before the dais in front of him. "Sorry to bother you, your highness. I just have so many questions."

"If I can answer them, then perhaps I can be of some service," Serenity allowed.

"I was kind of hoping that'd be the case. Though if it is trouble for you...."

"I am the queen of a ruined kingdom that has not had its subjects for more generations than I care to count." Kind blue eyes gazed back at him. "I don't see how you could burden me with something to do other than what I have been doing."

"Right. Sorry about that. It's just that... I've always believed that knowing the past is important. To know how people lived, so that who they were wouldn't be totally lost. Having a clear view of one's history is the only way to know where you are, and where you've been going."

"No many would have such an insight as yourself, you understand."

"Oh, I know that. Not so long ago, I was laughed at by my peers. Everyone else in the archeological community pushed me off because my theories were way off of what the 'official' ones were."

"Sometimes it's harder to tell the truth than to just go with what others say. But all you need is that one chance, and you can do a lot."

"Yes, and I was glad to have gotten that chance. Actually, there was someone who did believe in what I could do. Because of that faith, I was brought in to do some important work, which led me... here," Daniel commented, waving his hands at the ground he was on.

"Sounds like you think highly of him."

"_She_ is a woman that I respect and trust completely and utterly. To tell the truth, you remind me of her somewhat."

Queen Serenity cocked her head slightly before giving a slight smile. "Why, thank you."

"You're welcome, though it doesn't change the fact that I... that we need to ask you some things. We have some troubles, and if you could help us, that would be great."

"Of course. But beyond information, I do not see what I can do."

"If that is the case, then it'll still be wonderful. You see, we had some trouble, and just that stuff that the Senshi can do...."

"Sort of like that time thing," Jack piped in.

That got a head shake from Pluto. "That would be... troublesome at best."

"Really? I mean, if we could know what to watch out for...."

"Which would be a problem in and of itself. To remove a threat before it becomes a problem.... We could be treading some dangerous ground with such foolishness."

"The 'grandfather paradox', right?" Carter stated.

"You understand the inherent difficulty?"

"It's one of the basic questions involving time. If you know someone's going to die, and you go back in time, and save them, then you change the fact that originally sent you back in time in the first place."

"Okay," O'Neill commented, sensing that the example was for him. "That would be a bad thing."

"At best, we could hope for time to stabilize with the new flow. Or at least give us a second time line. For all we know, this situation we are in could be the result of a split where our lives went totally different."

"And if the worst had already happened?"

"We wouldn't know it, on account as the very fabric of reality hasn't fallen apart into oblivion, sir," Sam informed the colonel.

"Then the whole time travel thing is on the 'bad idea' list."

Pluto just looked pained during the whole discussion, but kept her words to herself.

"Still, we can't just stop there," Doctor Jackson stated, and looked around at everyone else. "There is so much that we can learn here. Just abandoning it would be... bad."

"What would you do?" Serenity asked softly.

"I don't know. Talk some more, if nothing else. And who knows, maybe we can take you back to Earth with us."

There was enough of the little body language possible in the suits to see that Samantha was surprised and Jack was thoughtful, but it was Pluto's raised brow that spoke the most out of all of their reactions.

* * *

A part of herself wondered idly if she should get a pantsuit, if no other reason than to change up her wardrobe, but Shion put it off for the time being. She had other things to worry about, and she did like how she looked in skirts. Even if she'd gotten to be seen as the 'pretty face' on the project, she wasn't about to let that sort of thing get to her.

Of course, there happened to be other sorts of stupidity to handle.

"Now, with the news that we still have pockets of these 'Jaffa' causing trouble, won't you admit that there are dangers to be had from your work?" Senator Kinsey demanded.

Folding her hands on the table in front of her, Shion gave him a level look. "Senator, unless we keep on going, we can't be prepared to fight those 'dangers', and they _will_ come."

"Then are you going to do with your machine? Will you dress it up too?"

"Would you prefer that I alter my appearance?" KOS-MOS asked, her expression never changing. "I do not see the reason, save if you wish for me to present myself in local dress, such as Shion does. Perhaps you would prefer that I dress in a suit. Would that be comfortable with your desires in feminine dress?"

As Kinsey turned red in the face and several quiet snickers were heard from the audience, Shion stifled her own giggles.

* * *

"Didja hear that, Billy Bob?" asked one of the locals, ignoring the "VIPs" and their plans.

"Sure did," said Billy Bob, a large local who turned to one of the other VIPs. "You ready?"

"Son," said Burt Gummer, flicking the cigar from one end of his mouth to the other so he could properly grin. "I was BORN ready. We'll need to start by figuring out where they're going, and set up a proper 'Welcome To Earth' party for them. I've got a Barrett who'd love to get acquainted."

"Oh! I love parties!" said Bambi. "I'll get the dip!"

"Tell me that she's not coming along," said Burt as he glanced at one of the gun show organizers.

* * *

They had gone in shooting. So far there were forty-three dead of the townsfolk, with none of the Jaffa so much as injured.

"What is with this?" asked Burr, one of the Jaffa. "The Tau'ri we fought in the skies were nothing like this."

"You're complaining?" asked Corr.

"Yeah, actually I am," said Burr. "We slaughter these sheep and all they do is bleat about it. Where are their warriors if they have not responded yet?"

Aseth, the leading Jaffa, finished with one of the remaining ones. "It's good sport. Shut up or we'll leave you behind."

Burr growled in his throat but didn't say anything. As soon as he could, he was getting OFF this rock. That meant cooperating for now.

"Let's see, we've conquered their 'City Hall', laid waste to their 'Police Department', crushed their 'Pre-School' and obliterated their refueling depots," said Aseth. "Where to strike next?"

"Can we hit one of their food stores?" asked Corr. "I'm getting a bit hungry."

* * *

"So maybe the ghost of the Queen could get a physical form that way," continued Daniel.

"I'm not sure the technologies are exactly compatible," said Sailor Pluto. "Happy, Jack?"

"I thought all you had were swords," said Jack, patting the long device.

"Early research that resulted in the Time Gates would occasionally come up with things like that," said Sailor Pluto.

"What exactly is that?" asked Daniel.

"A form of energy weapon with a power cell that is long drained," said Teal'c, loaded down with odds and ends.

"THIS I can work on, THIS I can understand," happily said Samantha Carter, pointing at the gadget. No fairy dust and pink hearts and things that just defied logic and common sense much less good taste. It was a GUN, a rifle, form following function in the same manner that crossbows resembled the rifles that would follow them. Well, some of the crossbows at least.

* * *

"So," said Akhmed, "it is agreed?"

"No," said Ishmael. "It is not. The West is easier for us to reach and attack. These others, if they actually exist, are something we can't reach at all. Better the enemy in your backyard than the one thirty thousand lightyears away."

"Actually, I think they're less than a hundred of these lightyears away," said Akhmed.

"I am exaggerating in order to make a point," said Ishmael.

"I don't doubt the story myself," said Akhmed. "My country has enough amateur astronomers that some of them watched parts of it taking place. One of the squads of these 'Death Gliders' attempted to strafe one of our cities. They were brought down by a group of these new American fighters. Naturally we scavenged the sites before their own recovery teams could get there."

The various figures all nodded at that, anything that could be carried off was fair game.

"So," said one of the others finally, "because we cannot arrive at a consensus we just sit around on our butts and do nothing?"

"Yeah, pretty much," said Akhmed eventually. "Does anyone have a great problem with this?"

"Other than I'm having to sit on a few dozen 'suicide bombers?'" asked Ishmael. "They don't last forever after all."

"If you are going to make a joke about expiration dates," said one of the other leaders, "I will have to kill you, you know."

* * *

Shipyards worked three shifts, and the work was frantic. Now that the whole 'alien conspiracy' thing had moved mainstream there had been a change at Yokosuka.

When a small ship (the news quickly broke and the term "tel'tak" was mangled in several different ways) landed and CATMEN walked out, it did cause a bit of a stir.

Curious about the newcomers was a certain Ukyo Kuonji. Whose yattai now sported a couple of pictures with various crew members of the Yamato, of herself wearing a spacesuit (though she hadn't been allowed to go EVA), and another where she had was passing a delivery box to Captain Okita. Why? Good for business. If the customers perceived a link between the food vendor and their own ship/community - that caused them to remember that vendor when the subject came up. Well, it wasn't the ONLY reason - but it was a pretty darn good one in Ukyo's estimation.

All of which made Ukyo a very busy person who was frequently exhausted at the end of the day. Happily exhausted since lots of people eating at her place meant lots of business.

Being flirted with by a leather-and-bronze-armored catman standing a good two feet taller than she was - that was entirely new and she was still sorting through the surprise THAT event had generated.

* * *

"The idea of protecting our world is a noble one, but we must know what we are getting in to before we do anything!"

The voice trembled over the loud speaker, more out of the fact that the speed of the assembly of the sound system sacrificed power than anything else. Standing there, the official held his microphone tightly in his hand with all the force of his convictions. No matter the fact that his party was not the dominant force in the area, he was going to make certain that he said what he thought needed saying. With the voice of reason out there, the people would then have someone pointing out the problems with what was going on with the current developments. And no doubt when they realized how reckless and inconsiderate the current administration was being, they'd want to demand answers as well.

"What are they really doing out there among the stars? Am I the only one who wonders how we managed to get to this point. Not only have they not told us of any danger before, but they are now claiming that there are even _more_ dangers out there!" he told the small crowd surrounding his impromptu podium, nodding with satisfaction at the news cameras pointed his way. "Not one real attempt has been made to produce a concise and complete explanation for all that we are facing out there.

A few nods came his way, though even if they were merely understanding his points, that was good enough.

"And how can we believe those who have kept this 'situation' from us for so long? Do the people of Japan... no, the _world_ have a right to know just what sort of danger they are in?"

Next to their cameramen, the reporters stood, merely listening, as they had to know what to say about this speech when they made the finishing touches to their reports.

"On top of that, what have they been spending _our_ money on? If they had this much capital to spend on warships, which are no doubt contrary to the original intention of the Japanese Constitution, then what other funds could they be siphoning for other projects? Without knowing the full accounting of what is going on, how can they be allowed to continue?"

Not just a few expressions said that there were people who had answers that they wanted to voice.

"What say you, the people of Japan, to the reckless and haphazard way that the administration has progressed in this time that they claim is of 'great import'?"

"Mama! Mama!" called out a small voice as a family passed by. "I wanna get the big spaceship! Just like the one that was on the TV!"

"Yes, yes," murmured his smiling mother as she indulgently let her son lead her along.

A young man in his early twenties passed by with his hands clasped by his head. "Are they really going to make us get onto a spaceship and fight?"

"Don't know, but it might be fun. Seeing other worlds and stuff, you know," commented another youth walking with him.

"Joining that new 'space force' might be a good career track," mused a schoolgirl as she walked with a cluster of her classmates.

"If anything, it would let you meet some cute and interesting guys," chirped one of her companions.

Grinning, a third hurried in front of her friends so that she could turn around to face them. "Who says that we can't meet them now?"

"Though, we don't have to be in the direct line of fire," a fourth girl told the others. "I mean, who says that we have to go out into space anyway? There's got to be jobs on the ground too."

All the official could do was let his jaw slacken a bit as he began to realize just how much he was a voice in the crowd.

* * *

After the earlier difficulties, Senator Kinsey was certain that the hearings would go better today. Those previous problems had involved civilians and outsiders who didn't understand the intricacies and protocols of governmental interference. Instead, they had merely ignored his attempts to steer the discussion in a proper manner, and had treated the situation as a farce by ignoring his authority, and their own need to take responsibility for their their actions. That was all well and good for now, as they were done with, and he could now see what he could salvage from this situation.

Fortunately, he was going to be able to do more with the next person to face the panel. Where he had been stuck dealing with undisciplined amateurs before, he was going to have a soldier before him now. He had not always had the best of relationships with all those serving in the armed forces, but he knew that they had to understand command structure and duty. They would take orders, and be able to put the information about recent events into a form that he could use. Such people were well familiar with following orders, and he knew that there were many of them who would follow instructions and not question upper level command instructions.

Having such a blessing made him relax, and he allowed himself a small smile at the chance to redeem these hearings before they became a joke in the history books.

"What has you so amused?" Senator Tezuka asked.

Kinsey glanced over at his fellow lawmaker and raised a brow. "Why would you think that I'm 'amused'?"

"The expression on your face."

"Ah, yes. Well, if you must know, I am certain that we can get things back on track."

"Is that so?" the Hawaiian senator murmured.

"Of course. Just look at who is coming in today. We have Captain Harrington coming in, and I'm sure that he will be understanding of the security issues involved in this... situation."

"'He' will?"

"Haven't you been listening," Kinsey lightly mocked the other man. "We will have a man, an _officer_, who will know who is supposed to be the superior here."

"You didn't read the brief fully, did you?"

"What are you talking about? I glanced over the important details, and made sure to have my aides keep me informed of what I absolutely need to know."

Clearly trying to keep from shaking his head, Tezuka sent Kinsey a look full of pity. "That's the problem."

"You're not making sense."

"I will be in a moment."

Asking for clarification occurred to Kinsey, but he didn't have the time to do so as the doors opened and the new witness stepped into the hearing room.

This individual was dressed in a crisp military uniform, one that did not have a single wrinkle or stain having ever shown on it. Under one arm was a cap, kept perfectly still and respectful, as would be expected of any exemplary military officer. Each stride was made evenly, showing strength and power being held ready for action, but under a disciplined mind, making it look purposeful, rather than demanding. With a head held high even as the assigned seat was taken, the officer showed the calm and cool strength that was expected of those who would lead men into combat.

However, the body in that uniform was decidedly feminine, with curves that pushed out the fabric in appealing ways. Nothing about her looks could be said to be lewd, but it was easy to see that she was a member of the 'gentler sex'. One couldn't miss it, even with the cut of her hair, and the lack of the level of makeup that many other women would have layered on. This was a woman who was in control, and who would _not_ be buckling in under the pressure of simply being a woman in what was traditionally a man's world.

"Gentlemen and ladies," she said in a crisp soprano. "Captain Honor Harrington, at your service."

Considering what he'd said in the chamber only moments earlier, Kinsey found that he felt like he was going to swallow his tongue,

* * *

**_author's notes:_** okay, some of you familiar with the Addventure might notice that i dropped a section that Kender wrote. Sorry Kender, but dragging real-world politics into the story was something that bothered me quite a lot and is one of the reasons i've been having trouble getting back into this story.

The devastation of DC at the hands of the Trust served two plot-points. One, it cleared things so that fictional characters with a different power-base could be inserted. Two, it broke the secrecy of the technological aspects of the story in such a way that it couldn't be handwaved away.

Some of you know my political views, or can guess, and know what problem i've had with certain people of a differing political view attacking me in the past. There's enough hate for the other party in both parties that i honestly feel it's best to avoid the whole issue.

Thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter.


	35. Chapter 35: Captains and Generals

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything. Don't have money. Just written to hone skills and amuse readers. Originally written by myself and Kender_Sci over at the Anime Addventure.

Many of the crossover/fusions featured are just spice, there is no attempt to keep those particular characters in the mix. If you want to run with one as a story of your own, please e-mail and i'll forward the request to Kender.

Chapter 35: Captains and Generals

* * *

"You're Captain Harrington?" asked Kinsey.

"Yes sir," said the Captain, looking calm and in control.

"You're younger than he expected," provided Senator Tezuka, rewarded by a few chuckles in the audience.

"I see," said Captain Harrington, a slight tilt of the head acknowledging the attempted save.

"Honor Stephanie Harrington, Captain of the United States Space Battleship _Iowa_," said Senator Tezuka, informing both the audience in the gallery and his colleague of who she was. "Nicknamed 'The Salamander' because you're always 'where the fire is the hottest'?"

"That has been said a few times, sir," acknowledged Captain Harrington.

"You've served aboard both submarines and carriers it says here," said Senator Tezuka, tapping the paperwork in front of him. "That, and your combat experience, certainly indicates why you're suited for work on a space-going battleship. Submarines have similar lifesupport and logistics, while you also perform roles as a carrier and supply ship in addition to being a battleship."

"Yes sir," said Captain Harrington. "Though I must give at least some credit for my appointment to General Hammond's recommendation."

"Yes, General Hammond HAS been quite busy, hasn't he?" began Senator Kinsey. "Having involved himself in bringing in foreign operatives to top secret US projects, letting secrets be bandied about internationally, and interfering in entirely different branches of the military. He's Air Force and shouldn't be trying to run the Navy."

"It was a recommendation, as I understand it," said the Captain. "Senators? If I might ask, why exactly was I summoned to testify? My own participation in these events has been as the commander of the _Iowa_."

"Can you give us an overview of how you became involved in this farce, Captain?" asked Kinsey.

"If you mean the current situation, sir, yes." The Captain considered for a moment. "Several months ago I was approached for a highly classified position that required a bump in rank from Lieutenant Commander to Captain. I was assigned to the _USS Michigan_ at that time. When I met with General Hammond, I was also introduced to a JSDF and a BOLO liason at that time. I was given the opportunity to refuse the assignment at that point. That position was the command of the _Iowa_, which was being built with assistance from the BOLO."

"The 'BOLO' being the alien tank," pointed out Kinsey. "Handing over secrets of our construction to alien machines."

"There is no part of our construction process that they aren't already familiar with, Senator," inserted Captain Harrington. "The aliens who constructed the BOLO followed a technology path similar to our own, but were hundreds of years ahead of us at the very least. Only diverging from our own projected future when they devoted much of their research into nanotechnology. The concern of our dependence on alien technology is shared by many, but at this point there is little that can be done about it."

* * *

"So Genma Saotome learned his Art from a demonic 'Master'?" asked Smith.

"And then sealed him in a cave," said Jones.

"So there MIGHT be some secrets of his ninja arts there," said Smith.

"Exactly," agreed Jones. "We just need to find out exactly where."

* * *

"What do you mean 'there is little that can be done about it', Captain?" asked Kinsey.

"Sir, are you familiar with this?" asked the Captain, setting a device on the table.

"It's a cellphone," said the Senator, scowling.

"Yes, sir," said the Captain. "Now imagine the founders of our country, just a couple of centuries ago, being presented one. If you were to explain its use, they could certainly call anyone in that time period who had also been given one. Some, Benjamin Franklin for example, would understand a good deal more than others. Could any of those people or their craftsmen duplicate the phone? Make new ones?"

"This is NOT two hundred years ago, Captain, we understand a great deal more of how the universe works," pointed out Kinsey.

"The BOLO builds things through a form of nanotechnology that is beyond that even of the Goa'uld," said the Captain. "The BOLO is limited in what he can do, but taking materials apart at the molecular level and rearranging them was what his creators did on a regular basis. What might look like a solid cube of metal can be dozens of connected devices, with an electron microscope necessary just to see the circuit paths."

"'It'," said Senator Kinsey.

"Pardon me?" asked Captain Harrington.

"You keep referring to the BOLO as a 'he', it's a mere machine," responded Senator Kinsey.

"My pardon, Senator, but the BOLO uses a male voice when speaking," said Captain Harrington. "I haven't met the BOLO myself, but I understand that over a kilometer of tank with some very impressive guns is worth granting some measure of respect. That the BOLO is our most open ally against the Goa'uld and those that slew his own creators is also worth at least a touch of respect. If the BOLO wanted to use a feminine voice and the name 'Ethel' - I wouldn't have a significant problem with that either."

"No, I'd imagine you wouldn't," said the Senator, looking grim.

* * *

Magazines were lined up in their colorful little rows as they vied for readers. This was perfectly normal.

That these were all Special Editions was quite understandable if being a bit less normal. Their quality control was not quite up to their usual standards, though this was also understandable due to the rush in getting them out.

"Did you notice that the 'Popular Mechanics' has the 'nics' displaced?" asked Daniel Jackson, quite understanding as to the pun involved.

"Considering it deals with what was observable regarding the giant robot that attacked Washington and the SAMAS that defended it, that's understandable," said Jack O'Neill, who was currently reading an issue of 'Discover' dealing with potential space habitats.

"That really interesting?" asked Daniel.

"They managed to get ahold of some people that know their stuff," said O'Neill, "goes into detail about the problems and probable benefits. They even got ahold of some of Tomoe's old stuff."

"Oh?" asked Daniel.

* * *

"The USS Iowa has three main turrets on deck, one below," said Captain Harrington. "Four secondary batteries. Four Phalanx-D type anti-spacecraft turrets. We have six missile launchers, six torpedo tubes, an armored hull, forceshields, and connection ports for fighter spacecraft to refuel and contribute to our defense. How, Senator, can you refer to my ship as 'underarmed and unready'?"

The audience around the podium stirred as the Captain's voice revealed a full measure of steel present. She hadn't moved terribly much, but she was suddenly radiating a degree of presence that was perfectly befitting someone in charge of the United States' space-arena flagship in a combat situation.

"I - I meant," said Kinsey before scowling and seeking to regain control of the situation. "Don't give me that, Captain. I simply meant that your crew was untested, this is your first command, and you were still bolting armor onto your ship when you were heading into orbit!"

"Sir, any implied criticism of my men or my ship is misplaced," said Captain Harrington. "We accomplished the mission, as evidenced by our being able to have this conversation."

* * *

"Denny's Beer & Tackle" was exactly the sort of place you might expect from the name. Small location near the Cedar River, a little off the beaten track, something the local area residents went to but didn't exactly cater (nor turn away business) from out-of-towners.

Not only was it IN Iowa, it was OF Iowa. The old ship. Quite a few of the older patrons had served at least one term in the military.

Someone from a big city might view the place as a little hole-in-the-wall redneck joint, no different from dozens of similar places in backwoods and small towns across the United States. In that they were right, except that the original bar/tackle shop owner had served in World War II aboard the USS Iowa and had various mock-ups and items from that ship scattered about the place as decorations.

Those who went to Denny's Beer & Tackle regularly came to regard themselves as connected to the USS Iowa, even if it was a distant and tenuous connection.

"Ya know," said William Robert (he didn't like being called Billy Bob, which of course meant a lot of people DID call him that) Edwin. "I was wrong."

EVERYONE in Denny's Beer & Tackle came to an absolute halt at that.

"Billy Bob, are you okay?" asked Harold Apen.

"THAT," said Billy Bob, pointing at the TV with the hand holding a beer, "might be a woman but she's sure as hell Navy."

There was a few mutters and calls of agreement at that, and several hands raised glasses (or bottles or mason jars) to the TV screen.

* * *

"We are Jaffa! Where is the force that can defeat us?" The Jaffa raised his staff weapon high. "There is none! We are the supre-"

_ka-krak!_

The other assembled Jaffa looked down at where their leader had suddenly fallen down.

"Where are they? Come forth and meet us cowards!" said the second-in-command, looking around at the buildings. None of those nearby looked to have anyone armed. "I call you cowards too honorless to face us in -"

_ka-krak!_

The remaining Jaffa looked down at their deceased second-in-command before diving for cover.

"You cannot win against us, Tau'ri!" said one behind an old Ford Pinto.

_ka-CHOOM!_

Burning wreckage arced up, then began raining down.

"I think we found their warriors," said one of the remaining Jaffa to his fellows.

* * *

Stressful situations were something that Honor had been through before, but she had always preferred to be actively doing something to handle the problems at hand. Political games weren't something that she liked at all, as they were messy and tended to distract from what she thought was important. Not that she could avoid it, as she'd come across so many officers who'd come from more of a culture of favors and cliques that tended to be focus on an 'old boy' situation. Of course, she didn't think that every one of the members of the old rich families, or those from long lines of military service were that closeted, but there were enough to make military politics the sort of thing that she'd avoid. And just remembering what had happened in the academy shower rooms that one time...

Actually, it probably wasn't the best to think about _that_ at any time, especially now.

Right now she was having to face the sort of official that she tended to find bothersome and ignorant, but she kept that off of her face. She wasn't about to disgrace herself with a loss of control, and to be honest, he really didn't deserve it. As she was there to do her duty, she wasn't about to show any of the disdain that she actually felt for some 'armchair general'.

"Despite the fact that you managed to get through your mission without getting the planet blown up," Kinsey growled, "just barely, on top of it, you aren't experienced at all. This is your first action as a commander."

"Technically, yes," she allowed.

"What do you mean 'technically'?"

"I have had to command vessels before. The first time, I had to take command when my captain and the other bridge officers were out of action. Later on, all the officers above me were killed in action, and I had to take on command."

"Really. Why don't you regale us with the tales of your exploits," Senator Kinsey sneered, looking quite disbelievingly at her.

"Unfortunately, I can not."

"What? Are you afraid to have the truth to come out?"

"Of course not, sir," Honor answered calmly. "I have respect for the need for handling information properly."

"Just how do you think that can be the case?"

"Because I am only allowed to inform you of those events. Other than that, the files on the incidents are coded as being 'Top Secret' and above. Due to that, I can not speak more on that. If you desire to know what actually happened, I'm sure that you can read the files, Senator."

If a look could actually be heard at the moment, the one that Kinsey was giving the captain would have been at top volume and curses.

"I'm sure that if we need to know, we can go and do some research," Senator Tezuka helpfully put in.

* * *

In Kaname's eyes, the situation wasn't exactly the sort of thing that she was finding all that favorable, but it wasn't like she was getting to make the decisions in this. "Are you serious about this?"

"I'm not sure that I understand your concerns, Miss Chidori," Kalinin evenly replied.

"I'm talking about how we're going on with this. I mean, Tessa got pulled into this, even though it wasn't like we even tried to mention her!"

"Yes, but we must work through it."

"It's not like not I don't get that," she muttered, stabbing her fork into the food on her plate. "The thing is that I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing here."

"Your involvement is already set into what is going on," Sosuke pointed out.

"I know that, stupid!"

"Good. Then we must figure out what your mission will be."

"That's... EH?"

"You have proven to be a major assistance in our sort of work," Kalinin told the high school girl. "And I doubt that will be able to end that any time soon."

* * *

"Beyond this sort of material, there are still questions as to why we have to go these sorts of lengths at all," Kinsey insisted, stiffening himself up in his chair."

Honor clasped her hands in front of her and gave him a flat look. "Do you want to protect our planet, sir?"

"How dare you ask me that? What kind of question do you think that was?"

"A pertinent one. You see, we are at a distinct tactical disadvantage, and our forces must work hard to close that gap. And one of the best ways to secure our future is to both work hard for increasing our abilities, and to gain allies who we can trust and count on in a fight."

"Is that so?"

"To fight something like this, we need all the help we can get," Captain Harrington informed him.

* * *

"Spaceship construction?"

"Why not?" asked Kaname Chidori.

"Indeed," said Tessa. "Why not?"

"It just seems so..." Mizuki Inaba seemed to consider how best to say what she was thinking. "Out there."

"Well, yes, the whole 'final frontier' thing," agreed Kaname. "That's definitely 'out there' - distances starting at twenty two thousand miles in fact."

"You have to admit, it is a new field," put in Kyoko Tokiwa.

The teacher twitched a little as she listened, but the assignment HAD been to write down the three choices for future career one was going to try for. It was a normal activity for students of this grade, and was intended to get the students thinking about how to go from where they were to those goals.

It was just that certain news stories and recent developments had thrown the traditional choices (which she was prepared to lecture on) aside to make room for whole new ones.

**Kaname Chidori**  
Spaceship Design/Construction  
Mechanical Design Specialist  
Engineering Crew, Spaceship

The teacher shook her head and looked at the next one, hoping for some normalcy. When she saw whose it was, she knew she'd be disappointed.

**Sosuke Sagara**  
Mecha Pilot  
Soldier  
Security Forces, Starship

Glancing over a more normal person's shoulder at their paper, there was an unusual choice there too.

**Kyoko Tokiwa**  
Communications Officer, UN Space Forces  
News Reporter  
Housewife

It was the most normal girl in the small group that elicited the biggest twitch from their teacher.

**Mizuki Inaba**  
Pet Store Clerk  
Magical Girl  
Spaceflight Attendent

* * *

The Jaffa were having a little trouble. One involved the Staff Weapons.

The Staff Weapons were large, visible, sturdy, and fired a pulse of plasma that flash-fried targets in a manner that was meant to be dramatic. If they'd faced regular tanks or APCs, those weapons would have been devastating because they DID pack quite a punch. They were, however, inaccurate and did not have a particularly good rate of fire.

If any targets tried to take cover behind relatively-flimsy cars or buses, they could be taken out when the cover was hit.

That left many others who were NOT using flimsy cover. Who were using firearms that ranged from completely legal to the level of firepower that was already causing some agents of the ATF to head in that direction. (Not that they were going to arrest anyone BEFORE the rogue Jaffa were stopped. No, thank you very much. They'd wait until the Jaffa were stopped and would then arrest everyone that would stay still long enough.)

The apparent stalemate was caused by those remaining Tau'ri using VERY accurate weapons that had a GOOD rate of fire. Of the six Jaffa who rose to destroy the less prudent Earth-natives, one was sufficiently lucky that his helmet had deflected enough of the force of the blow that he survived. The other five were now deceased.

If a Jaffa held ANYTHING up, there was a very good chance that some primitive projectile would come along and smash into it at a high rate of speed. As Fee'ur of the Jaffa could attest as he'd bent over to rummage in the glove box of one of the overturned vehicles. His only comfort was that one of the bigger guns hadn't picked that target, so that his buttocks were injured and not completely missing.

On the outside, it might appear to be a waiting game. The Jaffa were waiting for nightfall in order to slip away in the dark. The Tau'ri were waiting for the news crews to go away as they couldn't be filmed throwing explosives into the area without being the subject of all sorts of nasty legal repercussions. Though they also had some hope that a nearby SWAT team would bring something suitable. Apparently all the local police had were smoke and tear gas, and it had already been pointed out that the Jaffa were from outer space and likely to have some kind of environmental protection.

* * *

"I move we recess," said Senator Tezuka, adjusting his little beret. "We've covered a lot of ground, and I'm sure that I and my colleagues have a great deal of information to dig through."

"I'm not done yet," said Kinsey, covering his microphone.

Tezuka also covered his microphone. "Yes, you are. You need to go over some different briefs. I'll send some over. There's no reason to keep Captain Harrington here. Everything she did and said during the battle was recorded and we can go over them later."

Kinsey almost sneered. "You don't know the way things are run around here, so let me clue you in. It's all about spin."

"Not now," said Tezuka softly. "We're both of the same party, so I ask this as a colleague. Step away from the microphone for now."

Kinsey glared at his associate briefly.

They were briefly interrupted as an Asgardian transport beam materialized one of the aliens near the Captain's seat.

"Arr me mateys, this be the..." The Asgardian took out a small device and thwacked it. "Faction reputation insuf-" _thwack_ "Sorry, translator trouble. Now, Captain Harrington, this is to inform you that your request for Asgardian self-repair technology is being considered but is unlikely to pass. We simply don't know enough about you and certain forces within your governments have proven... untrustworthy."

"I was specifically asking about Iron Gloop-34," said Captain Harrington. "As I understand it, you have moved several stages beyond that technology yourselves."

"Understood, and that you even know about it is quite surprising," admitted the Asgard. "In light of that, we are more seriously considering the Europa Tower you proposed."

There was a stir as the Asgard had just turned towards the table shared by Kinsey and Tezuka.

"'Europa Tower'?" weakly asked Kinsey.

"Something a commitee I work with tossed out," said Tezuka, handwaving off the whole reference. "Since we're allies with several species, having some neutral meeting ground might be nice. Maybe in the vicinity of Jupiter, and if we put it near Europa we would get quick access to water in the form of ice. Not all our potential allies would be comfortable with Earth gravity, and there's also the concerns the CDC is raising about potential extraterrestrial diseases."

"Might as well call it 'Babylon,'" grumbled Kinsey.

There was brief ripple of conversation in the audience as Tezuka looked off into the distance. "Hmmm. Not bad. I'll relay the suggestion."

* * *

A table built of solid oak dominated the room, and the wall paneling matched it to give off a sense of strength and comfort, but that oddly fit the girl sitting there. Her tall form had the sort of shapely beauty that women much older than her would have been envious of... not that she seemed to be flaunting it. Yet, as she sat there, she almost looked older than her years, as she filled out her school uniform quite well, and had a quite core of confidence within her.

And she was currently sitting there with her hands fidgeting in her lap.

"Ummm... Why am _I_ here?" Makoto asked the man in front of her.

Major Davis gave her a small smile before leaning forward. "It is only understandable given the situation."

"_What_ situation? I mean, I can't think of anything that the United States would have to come to _me_ for. Other than fighting those monsters."

"You are selling yourself short, you know."

Under such praise, the brunette could only blush in a way that betrayed her age and experience.

"But events are coming about concerning you. I assume that you have been paying attention to the hearings in Washington."

"Only a little," the teenager admitted as she gave a small shrug. "I don't understand a lot of it, and my English isn't so good."

"Well, a lot of it doesn't have to do with you. The important part has to do with the 'Babylon Project' that was suggested there."

"Right, that meeting place thing? Isn't it supposed to be good?"

"Yes," the Air Force major agreed. "A lot of the nations have shown interest in it. Having a place to talk to other races far from the Earth seems to be good to them."

"Isn't that the point? Why would I have a problem with that?"

"They're looking to put it near Europa."

"From what I get, that's far away, so as far as I can see someone's thinking right."

Wondering how much emphasis was put on astronomy in educations here in Tokyo, Davis tried to keep himself from giving her a censuring look. "Europa is a moon of Jupiter, and as the Senshi of that planet, it'd be something that you should keep in mind."

"Oh, okay... I didn't realize..."

"We'd also like it, if you don't mind having such a station there, for you to make sure that things are set up for it. You are supposed to have one of those Castles there and we'd prefer to not have your defense system blow our diplomatic center out of the sky."

Ducking her head, Makoto tried to not look as embarrassed and silly as she felt.

* * *

There wasn't much that Ranma understood about all that was going on, at least in an organizational situation. When he was growing up, his father had merely dragged him around, going from training spot, to tournament, to secret storehouse, and so on. Near as he could tell, there had never been much of a method to the madness, and he hadn't really fought for an explanation.

However, even he understood that when handling a situation, one needed a plan. Wandering around the countryside was fine, but even his father understood that one had to have a good place to sleep. Now, being in Tokyo made that much easier, as he not only spoke the language, but there were plenty of hotel rooms to stay in. Why, he was pretty sure that he could even find a good place to camp out if it came to that.

Considering that he had Hotaru with him though, that didn't seem to be the best idea. Keeping her indoors seemed for the best, as he didn't see a reason to force her to nap outside. After all, there was no point to it, and he didn't want to suffer if he didn't have to himself.

"Alright then, we should be almost there," he murmured half to himself.

Looking around with uncertainty in her violet eyes, Hotaru frowned. "Do we have to go so far?"

"Pretty much. I mean, we don't have much in the way of money, and you didn't seem too happy with staying where we were."

A delicate flush worked up her cheeks and she turned her head as if her face would broadcast her thoughts.

He didn't seem to notice though. "Of course, they did charge by the hour, so that could have been a mess too."

"There _was_ that..."

"This works out better for the both of us. The way I see, we won't have to pay, and we get to be somewhere that we're actually wanted."

"Then we'll be staying here," she commented as she glanced at the nameplate that read 'Saotome'.

"Pretty much," the pigtailed boy confirmed, and then rapped a knock against the door. "'Sides, it'll let us get a visit in before they come to pick us up."

"Ranma! Hotaru!" a positively gleeful looking Nodoka Saotome declared as she opened the door to her home.

* * *

William Robert Edwin was a regular at "Denny's Beer & Tackle" - which was sort of a "redneck joint" with a US Navy motif in the decor. He worked nine-to-five at a meatpacking plant, where he did hard boring physical labor for an extended period. On Saturdays he'd be at the bar, on Sunday mornings his church. He'd never really questioned much of his life or how it had turned out, it simply was what it was.

There hadn't been any reason to question his life, if he did - he might not be content with it but unable to change anything. So why bother?

As the hearings went into recess, he was not the only one who quietly went over to the magazine racks and looked over the titles ready for perusal.

There were the usual ones about this or that celebrity's latest diet, the latest photos of someone Billy Bob didn't even recognize because he didn't follow the latest music trends in the latest celeb-scandal, and the other typical stuff. Billy Bob didn't even understand why anyone would bother with that sort of thing. He knew there were people who obsessed on it, but he figured he'd understand alien snake demons before he understood that sorta thing.

Then there were the magazines he didn't normally glance too much at but would usually at least thumb through. Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Wired, and so on. Sometimes they had an article in there he'd be interested in, like when they dealt with an eval of the latest set of outboard engines. All of these magazines were rush jobs - some of the type on the cover wasn't even lined up right. All of which dealt with some of the revelations that'd been dropped on them in the past few weeks.

Vampire thingies out of Japan. Little girls that should have been worrying about cheerleading practice who apparently were instead playing 'Buffy the Slayer' on those vampires. Alien spaceships.

"Oh my gosh," said one of the others in the bar. "LOOKATTHAT!"

Billy Bob glanced up at the big TV screen that'd normally be tuned to whatever sports game was playing, and then froze into staring himself before he could ask. "What the heck is THAT?"

"Them newsguys got a hold of this footage," said Harold ("Hairy") Apon. "THAT is the BOLO."

It was in the distance, and you could see that there were mountains all around it, but it just gave off this impression of size and mass as the thing emerged and the picture froze. It was a little blurry, but you could tell a lot about it. Such as it had more guns than a battleship.

"BOLO?" asked Billy Bob. Where had he heard that before?

"That there is our biggest ally in outer space?" asked Hairy.

"Looks plenty big to me," opined Billy Bob, now placing it.

"They named after the sentient, that means it thinks like a person, tanks after a series of novels," said the Professor. His name was Roger, but they all called him "Professor" cause he'd graduated from some big university and actually read books for fun. He might be an interstate trucker and only there on a monthly basis, but he was considered a regular too. To the extent that all he had to do was walk in the door and the guy behind the grill would throw some pastrami on the grill for the "usual" deal.

"Sucker's big as one of them alien spaceships by itself, and it thinks?" asked Billy Bob. He chewed on that information briefly as the commentator talked about a bunch of stuff that made damn little sense to him. Finally he simply raised a mason jar of the House Special towards the TV.

"To big guns!"

Everyone at the bar agreed with that sentiment. Big guns, when they were on your side, were a good thing.

* * *

"They're shutting us down?" blurted Susumu Kodai.

Captain Okita sighed as he swiveled his chair behind his desk, pouring himself another drink before addressing his staff again. "Kodai. Sit down."

Kodai sat down, agitated still but remembering his place.

"Is it Article 9?" asked Sanada.

"That is indeed part of it," said Okita. "The official story is that the _Yamato_ will be decomissioned and allowed to sink beneath the atmosphere of Jupiter."

"And the truth is?" asked Sanada before anyone could fully react.

"This is top secret, it does not leave this room, I never said this," cautioned Okita, iron in his voice. When everyone had nodded to that, he finally continued. "It will be 'mothballed' - placed inside an asteroid even now being hollowed out for that purpose. I think the term is 'an ace up our sleeve' in case it is ever needed."

"You'll need a caretaker to keep the systems upgraded," said Sanada.

"Yes," said Okita. "I would have asked you after the meeting. A small resupply station in the asteroid belt will be the cover."

"I will consider it a station of honor," said Sanada, bowing as well as he could from his position and with his wounds.

"Most of the rest of you will be serving either on Babylon as part of the Japanese presence on that station, while others will be either on the Bismark station or otherwise deployed in space." Okita looked over the senior officers he'd assembled for this briefing.

"Sir?" asked Daisuke Shima. "You said 'part of the reason' earlier."

"There are massive lawsuits filed against the Earth Defense Alliance," said Okita. "Battles in space. Deflecting asteroids. Failure to notify of new weapons technologies. Detonation of nuclear weapons, even though this last never actually happened, in violation of the Test Ban Treaty, and so on. Since it is all happening in international courts with the United Nations backing..."

"We're being sued for saving the Earth?" asked Kodai incredulously.

"Basically, yes," agreed Okita, sipping at his drink.

"That's crazy!" declared Kodai.

"It's politics," said Okita, standing. "If that's it then, I wish you the best of luck. It's been an honor serving with you."

* * *

"Look! It's a youma!" yelled a young girl's voice.

Haruka and Michiru nodded to each other, got up from their table at the mall's cafe, and strolled around a corner to the ladies' room.

Sailor Uranus and Neptune emerged and leapt to the railing on the other side of the walkway to better gauge when and where they needed to make their dramatic entry. Except that the situation didn't seem quite right some how.

"NOO!" screamed a youma. "It's them again!"

"Come on, you youma, drain us!" shouted one of the schoolgirls.

"Suck our energy out you vampires! We've got you cornered now!" demanded one of the other schoolgirls.

"You can't get away," promised a third schoolgirl while a fourth just nodded and looked angry.

"Eh?" asked a twitching Sailor Uranus.

"Noooooooooooo! I don't wanna!" said one of the youma, her back against the closed elevator doors. "Stay away!"

"Uhm... say what?" inelegantly put Sailor Neptune as she tried to understand what she was seeing and hearing.

"HAH!" said one of the youma, reaching out with one arm to snag a section of overhead railing and then snapping the arm back to normal size. "You can't catch me that easy! Now I can escape! Score one for youma powers... oh CRAP!"

Neptune and Uranus found themselves staring at the one youma who was quickly joined by the other youma, with a quartet of Middle School girls running up the stairs in pursuit.

"Well, that's it then," said the first youma, producing a blindfold and cigarette from somewhere. "Just go ahead then!"

"Uhm... what?" asked Uranus.

"Go ahead and blast me to moondust," said the first youma, standing at attention with the blindfold now in place and a cigarette between her lips.

"Yes, you might as well," said the second, sniffling and falling to her knees. "Where's the point anymore?"

"Uhm," repeated Uranus, looking to Neptune to see if she had any ideas.

"Yes, go ahead," said the first youma. "Blast us into tiny little sub-elementary particles. But... I won't cry!"

"You... already are," said Neptune, noticing tears tracking from beneath the mask. This was NOT how any such operation was supposed to go.

"Hold it there, you youma!" yelled one of the girls coming up the stairs. "You've got to drain us of life energy!"

"WAAAAAAAAAA!" cried the second youma. "Why was I born if it was just to become dust on the wind?"

* * *

There weren't many moments where Sailor Uranus could be found to show extreme bits of exasperation, but then again, she didn't normally have regular schoolgirls trying to chase down a youma. "Will someone explain what the hell is going on around here?"

"It's really simple," one of the youma moaned. "You're going to blast us and we're going to be merely ashes to ashes..."

"You shut up right now. That isn't helping."

"This is really is a troublesome situation, isn't it? We don't have any information as to how this is playing out," Neptune murmured, tapping her lips with a gloved finger.

"Yeah, but it's usually really simple. We come across a plan, cut down whatever the scheme is, and take down the monster. What are we supposed to do when the bad guys don't try to fight back?"

"Unfortunately, an answer isn't exactly coming about this way."

"True enough. But what can we do about that?" the blonde asked, heaving a sigh as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"We can try asking for information," the violinist murmured as she turned to the other teenagers. "Sorry to have to interrupt you when you seem to be in such a hurry, but just why are you after these creatures? Did they do something to you?"

"No, and that's the problem!" shouted one of the girls.

"Pardon me?"

Another of the girls leaned forward with her features hard and serious. "Haven't you ever seen a vampire movie? Those guys are majorly cute and seductive! Just the idea of having such a handsome guy leaving you so weak in the knees, and being at his mercy..."

"It'd be so erotic!" squealed a third girl, with a number of her companions yelping their agreements in one on top of another.

"Pheh," went yet another girl, who flipped her hair and tried to look as high class as she could. "Who cares about that? If these guys are able to suck up the energy like they're supposed to, then that'll just take the kilograms right off!"

"It'll make our diets _so_ much easier to handle!" chirped a second girl, with a bunch of her fellows nodding in agreement.

"Why do we have to go through all this?" sobbed a youma. "Now that our bosses aren't around any more, we just want to survive! And instead of that, we're going to be tortured and blasted to pieces!"

"Are you saying that you _don't_ want to create some sort of plan to gather energy?" Sailor Neptune asked.

"We didn't need to in the first place. Most of what we took was given to the Generals and the Queen, and it was their ideas in the first place anyway!"

"I see..."

"Let me get this straight," Uranus muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose. "We may just have to protect alien life sucking fiends from a pack of over anxious teenage girls."

"Looks that way."

"That is so wrong. So _very_ wrong."

* * *

For Ranma, it had seemed to be a simple enough plan. Hotaru and he would go visit his mother, who obviously would have no problem in taking them in. They were already in Tokyo without quarters already arranged, and he hadn't seen his Mom since she'd come to visit over at Colorado Springs. This way, he'd be able to see her and take care of the problem of not being prepared to have come to Tokyo in the first place.

Now he wasn't quite sure of how wise that had been.

It wasn't that he didn't like visiting his mother, as she was both quite loving and a gracious hostess. On top of that, he'd missed her, and rather liked the idea of being able to see her. His problem was that he was sensing some sort of trouble brewing, but seeing as it was not of the combative sort, he couldn't quite figure out just what it was. She seemed to be relaxed enough, but then he didn't know her as well as he'd like, and hadn't grown up in a more sedate setting like this.

That meant that he wasn't quite sure if it was normal for a Japanese homemaker to have magazines out like this. Having reading material available for visitors seemed to be natural enough, but it seemed to be oddly skewed towards girls. Given that it was his mother who'd collected the magazines, that was understandable enough, but then, he still got an odd vibe from them. A number of fashion magazines were there, with a bridal one peeking out here and there. And some of them were even in English!

Since he didn't know what that would mean, he merely sat back and sipped his tea, thanking his good fortune that his mother was a good cook, beyond anything else.

"It's quite nice to have the two of you here," Nodoka murmured, smiling at her son's companion. "To think that the two of you made such a long trip just to visit an old woman."

"No, it wasn't like that... that bad, I mean," Hotaru weakly protested.

"Thank you for giving me that."

"It's true! We don't get a lot of chances for... this sort of thing."

"Why wouldn't you? I mean, wouldn't your mother... Oh, that's right," the Saotome matriarch whispered. "You mother is... no longer here."

"Yes, she... left us, but it was when I was very little."

"Which is still quite bad for a girl to lose her mother."

"I do miss what I could have had with her..."

"Of course, that's only natural. But... I could help you with that," Nodoka soothed the girl, patting one of Hotaru's slender hands.

"You would?"

"Absolutely. You know, as much as I adore my son, I did always want to have a daughter as well."

"I don't mean to try and force you to..." the girl blurted, her violet eyes going wide with the fear of having asked too much.

"Stop worrying. I like you, and having you for a daughter would be a wonderful turn of events."

"Th... thank you."

"And just so you know, I'll _love_ helping you with your bridal training."

"Me, a bride?" Hotaru squeaked as a flush turned her neck, face, and ears a bright red.

As he watched his mother smile with maternal approval, Ranma wondered if there was something about what he was watching that he'd missed.

* * *

Sailor Uranus felt compromised. To protect the innocent from those who would prey on them, she would have to defend a couple of life-sucking fiends from some manic fangirls.

This was just so very very wrong.

"KYAAAAAAAA!" said the suddenly more-enthusiastic girls.

Sailor Uranus turned to look behind herself, knowing she was NOT going to like this.

Descending from a floor above, cape billowing dramatically around him, was a bishonen sort of guy. Long hair, aristocratic looking, psuedo-militaristic uniform. Glowing sparkly field around him.

"Oh, great," said Sailor Uranus. "Are you a vampire?"

"No," said the man, sparkly field dying out as he landed on the railing.

"Drain energy?" asked Sailor Neptune.

"Not since the shackles on my mind and powers were loosed," admitted the man.

"Nephrite-sama! Save us!" said the two yoma.

"Nephrite?" asked Sailor Neptune. "One of the Shitennou?"

The man inclined his head. "The humble servant of Prince Endymion. I have something for you! Ha!"

Sailor Neptune caught the card.

"Dark Generals... with business cards?" asked Sailor Uranus, feeling the situation was already well out of hand and just descending into completely surreal.

"Worse than that," said Sailor Neptune, looking over Uranus' shoulder and her voice conveying her disapproval of this development. "It has a coupon for two-for-one admission to the Dark Kingdom."

"Discount coupons?" asked Sailor Uranus, turning a hopeful look to the Dark General. "Trying to lure us into a trap, right?"

"No, actually I'm running a small observatory," said Nephrite. "Astronomy, a bit of astrology and a small cafe. In the month approaching Halloween I'll also be running a small 'haunted house' with benefits to go to a charity concerned with orphaned children. Adieu, Sailor Senshi! We'll meet again."

"Eh?" asked Sailor Uranus, whirling to find that the yoma were indeed gone.

"What did you... there he goes," said Sailor Neptune.

"You're not getting away," said Sailor Uranus, preparing to pursue.

"KYAAAAAAAAAA!" said the young schoolgirls as they mobbed the two Senshi to get the precious coupon.

* * *

"So the symbols on this sphere are roughly equivelant to 1000 pages of text?" asked General Hammond.

"Yessir," said Carter. "The civilization went extinct about 100,000 years ago. Not much survived except this and the building it was in. Almost a moonscape otherwise."

"Hmph, be careful then," said General Hammond, knowing they knew this but wanting to put the reminder out. "We don't know that this didn't have a hand in that destruction."

"No sir," said Carter. "We ended up putting it in this case because of some anomalous readings from a medscanner."

"It's not biological, is it?" asked the General, eyeing the mostly-bronze-looking device.

"No sir, though it has..." Carter paused as she tried to find the 'layman terms' to use. "It's made entirely of inorganic materials but it looks to be assembled in a way to resemble a rutabaga or something. The sphere is actually made of tiny cells of each material, each with some slightly different substructure."

Daniel Jackson sighed as he continued working the camera. "So the script is 1000 pages of text, which might make it a sort of index for the rest of the sphere - which itself would have billions of pages of text."

"So it's less a **Message In A Bottle** and more of an encyclopedia in an orb," quipped Jack from his position near the door and fiddling with the medscanner.

"Ouch," said General Hammond, "well, carry on then. We've got some..."

_bleeep!_

"What was that?" asked General Hammond.

"We just picked up a temperature change in the sphere," mused Jack O'Neill, glancing at a display. "Uh oh."

"Atomic decay just jumped," said Samantha Carter.

* * *

"I've just decided," said Uranus as she managed to rise up off of the floor. "I'm swearing off any schoolgirl who likes 'sparkly vampires' as they are entirely too silly."

"You've got a shoeprint atop your head," pointed out Neptune.

"Let's just go home," said Sailor Uranus. "Maybe tomorrow will make more sense."

* * *

Ranma was getting more nervous, almost as if there was an attack coming. It was just he had no idea where the attack was coming from or what kind of danger.

After all, it was early morning. His mother had just taken Hotaru into the kitchen and he heard the murmur of voices - with Hotaru making a squeaking noise on at least one occasion. What was THAT about anyway?

After considering it briefly, Ranma decided to check in with SGC and them. They were supposed to head toward the Ring Transporter that had been set up this afternoon, and it might be a good thing to make sure the schedule was still valid.

Yeah, that was all. Nothing special going on here, right?


	36. Chapter 36: Tendo Mercies

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything. Don't have money. Just written to hone skills and amuse readers. Originally written by myself and Kender_Sci over at the Anime Addventure.

Many of the crossover/fusions featured are just spice, there is no attempt to keep those particular characters in the mix. If you want to run with one as a story of your own, please e-mail and i'll forward the request to Kender.

Chapter 36: Tendo Mercies

* * *

To Hotaru, this was the sort of thing that she'd known that she'd want to have for herself. Being able to be with a mother as they enjoyed activities together was a dream that she'd seen in plenty of magazines and comic books for girls, but she hadn't been able to have it for herself. Oh, it wasn't that she downplayed the role that the soldiers and other scientists had played in her life, as they had treated her at worst as the project's 'mascot', which wasn't all that bad. But, for all the care that those 'surrogate parents' and her own occasionally absent minded father gave her, it never stopped her from wondering about what it would have been like to go shopping or chat with her own mother.

Right now though, she was wondering about just how comfortable starting to get into such a relationship with Ranma's mother would be.

"Don't be so tense, dear," Nodoka gently admonished. "If you strain too much, you won't be able to slice the vegetables evenly."

"I didn't mean to mess it up..." Hotaru weakly replied.

"That's quite alright. Remember, it's not about perfection. It's about putting your feelings into the meal."

"I guess..."

The older woman sighed, and gave the girl an indulgent smile. "I can understand your hesitation, but remember, this will help you along your way. Why, when he was younger, Ranma absolutely _loved_ this dish."

"But it has been so long since... Oops!"

"It's alright. I've become used to how things are. Of course, I came into this knowing what it would mean for my life. And you should know about this too."

"I should?" the raven haired girl squeaked, her violet eyes widening as she recognized what the older woman was saying.

"As the wife of a martial artist, you'll have to be strong. It'll be your role to be the support that he'll need."

"We... we... still haven't..."

"That's fine, but remember, when that time comes, it'll be you propping him up. And I'm not merely talking about the cooking and the cleaning," Nodoka stated.

"Then what could you mean?"

"You wouldn't realize it, being so young, but a wife has a responsibility to keep her husband on his proper path. That might mean that the couple would be separated for long periods, but in the end, a bride will be called upon to protect the family. And that might mean she could have to sacrifice for the good of the clan."

"How am... how is a wife supposed to do that?"

"With care and concern," the other woman told her. "And there can be no honorable way to waver."

Something about that sentence sat... oddly with Hotaru, and she smiled nervously as she tried to figure out how to work around this shift in conversation.

* * *

None of those in the room were under any illusions that the change in the temperature of the object was something to dismiss. Things like that just didn't happen without a reason, and when one didn't know what that reason was, it tended to be a problem. Even if it wasn't a danger in and of itself, it would likely develop into trouble if it was mishandled.

General Hammond knew this, and wasn't about to waste time in finding the proper way to handle the development. "Captain, what exactly is happening?"

"I don't know myself, sir," Carter reluctantly admitted. "We only started checking into what it's made of, never mind knowing what it does."

"So... we can't even start to work on this."

"Pretty much... unless Daniel's translated something."

"Don't look at me," the archeologist protested.

"Maybe you should come look at this then, Carter," Jack murmured.

Blowing out a breath, she glanced over at her team leader. "Sir, I'll be right there."

"_Now_, Carter."

"Alright," Sam murmured... leaning over to peer at the medscanner he'd been fiddling with. "That can't be right. It would mean that this thing is _alive_."

The men in the room blinked at her words.

* * *

There was a lightning storm in the mountains. Not that this meant a lot.

Except for the lightning that blasted through Shinto wards and caused rubble to fall away from a cave entry.

Not that anyone noticed.

* * *

"Testing. Servos OK."

"Main trans-engines start. Number one, two, on. Number three, four, off. Number five, six, seven, eight, on."

"This is Deimos Tower. All systems show active. Meters green. Airspace clear."

"Hello, this is VIFAM."

"Hello, VIFAM 7. Airspace clear."

"Permission to sortie?"

"Permission granted. Good luck, VIFAM-7."

* * *

"So a new TV series about how some group saves the universe in a giant robot?"

"Yeah, it's gotten a green light from the people with the money. **V**ernian **I**infantry **F**ully **A**rticulated **M**echa or VIFAM."

"What's a 'mecha'?"

"Japanese word to indicate a human-shaped war machine, I think."

"I dunno, isn't this something that might give the wrong idea?"

"I thought the idea was to make boatloads of money."

"I mean like having the military as heroes?"

"We can always have corrupt politicians and incompetent military leaders to provide conflict. Heck, those are stock characters we can use."

"I suppose."

* * *

"Where the hell is this?" asked a boy.

He had been wandering all over Japan. When his middle school had recessed for Spring Break, he'd gone off to train further in the martial arts.

Of course, he'd been wondering exactly what the heck was going on when he'd seen this ship passing overhead in a manner not exactly keeping with the sort of ships he'd been familiar with.

He'd seen some people going in a door and had decided to ask for directions. Except that inside that door he'd quickly found himself alone again.

Then a set of rings had popped up around him, there had been a weird noise, and now-

"HOW THE HELL DID I GET ON THE MOON?" yelled Ryoga Hibiki as he tried to figure out what was going on.

* * *

"Okay, this is just MORE wrong," said Haruka, looking over the place.

"The Dark Kingdom," said Michiru, glancing up at the dark blue neon sign. "Jindai High Astronomy Club meeting on Tuesday... they also do fieldtrips."

"What's that splashing noise?" asked Haruka, thinking about water-based yoma maybe drowning schoolkids. It concerned her that she was actually hoping this would be the case.

Michiru looked around the corner, stared for a moment, then walked back. "You don't want to know."

"I don't?" asked Haruka.

"No. No, I don't think you want to know." Michiru sounded quite firm on this.

"Is it innocent schoolkids being drowned by water-based yoma?" asked Haruka.

"No, it's a charity carwash being staffed by scantily clad yoma in human form," said Michiru.

"'charity carwash'?" saked Haruka weakly.

"Apparently to benefit rebuilding efforts from one of those crashed Death Gliders that came down in Juuban," said Michiru with a shrug. "I told you - you wouldn't want to know."

"I see," said Haruka. "Do you suppose if we broke in and investigated this place - would we find any indication of some dark and dangerous evil plot?"

"I'm just going on intuition and recent events and say 'probably not'," put in Michiru.

Haruka twitched.

Michiru sighed, knowing EXACTLY how Haruka felt.

* * *

_SCHWANG!_

"OUCH!"

"Sir, the alien device just produced spikes that anchored itself in the gate room, incidently pinning Colonel O'Neill to the wall."

"I'll be right there," said General Hammond.

* * *

When she'd come to visit the mother of her childhood friend, Hotaru had been looking forward to it. Not only was she getting to see a woman that she respected and liked, but she would be a bit closer to the boy that she cared so much for. It would allow her to experience the sort of normal life that she would have never quite gotten with the life she'd been leading so far. That wasn't to say that she hadn't had a happy and joyful upbringing, but she'd always wondered about what it would be like to enjoy a quiet and peaceful life.

What she hadn't expected was to be wearing a somewhat elaborate kimono as Ranma's mother fixed her hair up in a little more formal style. "Is this really alright?"

"Oh, certainly," Nodoka murmured with a smile. "Making yourself feel and look beautiful is always important and comfortable."

"It takes a lot of work, doesn't it?"

"That can be the case, but with such a lovely child like you, it's no problem at all."

The violet eyed teenager blushed and ducked her head. "I'm not..."

"Don't sell yourself short, dear. You did do well with the food."

"I wanted to just make something good."

"Well, you did well. Ranma did like it, now didn't he?" the Saotome matriarch commented.

"Yes, he did..."

"I'll help you learn how to do some things that will let you do some wonderful things."

"Really, like what?" Hotaru asked, clearly interested.

"If you want, you can help me set some flowers in to the vases around the house."

"That sounds nice..."

* * *

"So, let me see if I understand the situation," General Hammond said as he peered over towards the chaos going on in the Gate Room. "Colonel O'Neill can not be removed from the spike that artifact had produced."

"It does seem to be that way, sir. Nothing that we have seems to even scratch it," Carter reluctantly admitted.

"Can we go through the wall instead?"

"You do remember what they built this facility out of, sir."

The base commander pressed his lips together and sighed. "Unfortunately, I do. But that I refuse to give up on my officer. Do we have any options?"

"Well, we could see if we could get him something to help him deal with it."

"Then we really have no choice."

"Sir?" commented Sam.

"Someone go and zap Colonel O'Neill. Perhaps those powers of his could help."

"It is a possibility, sir, but we can't be sure that it will actually..." the blonde began, and then blinked at those around her. "What? Why are you all looking at me like that?"

There a moment of calm as the men merely let their expressions pass their ideas to her.

* * *

Happosai was confused.

Things had changed since he'd been imprisoned in that cave by Genma. He'd expected a few things over ten years.

"Hmph," said Happosai as he looked over the magazines. Women in the military? That gal with the blonde short hair on the cover of _Tokyo Photojournal_. Some Amerikajin military girl but under that uniform he could tell she was cha-cha-cha!

* * *

Samantha Carter had no idea why, but she had a sudden chill and a desire to stay away from Tokyo.

Shrugging, she continued to work on translating data on the sphere that currently had Colonel O'Neill pinned to a wall. She wanted to make sure that shooting a superior officer to free him from alien death-traps wasn't going to make things worse.

She had this feeling that it would. Not that she paid much attention to that sort of 'intuition' of course.

Just... better make sure.

* * *

Happosai frowned as he looked over the magazines. Alien invasions? Vampires? Sailor-suited warriors of Love and Justice? Oh, waitaminute. Look at those skirts! Whoo hooo!

Hmmm. From what he could see in this magazine, these girls had advanced chi techniques with an elemental effect. This side bar here indicated that they put on those clothes in order to fight menaces to society.

Well, he was here. He was a menace to society, wasn't he? Where were the scantily-clad girls that should be fighting him?

Happosai frowned as he considered the unhappy thought that he simply wasn't considered menacing enough.

Putting the magazine back on the shelf, Happosai glanced around at the other magazines as he thought about this.

Happosai cackled as another thought occurred to him. If THEY wouldn't come to him, HE should go and find them.

He'd just go after girls of the approximate age until he found them. Ones with high chi, but he couldn't discriminate against the other girls either.

"Gotta catch 'em all!" declared Happosai. Now where to go after young girls with high chi? Dojos of course. He was in Nerima now, so that was as good a place to start as any.

* * *

"Hello, Saotome residence?" said Ranma after he answered the phone. "Yeah? Yeah? Oh okay. What time? Got it."

He settled the phone back down as he considered that.

"Hotaru? Something came up back at the SGC. They want to know if we can be at the ring transporter in about two hours."

* * *

If she was going to be truthful, Hotaru had to admit that she really did like the concept that Ranma's mother was going with. Since her own mom had passed away when she was a little girl, she didn't have a really good chance at getting that sort of attention. Her teachers in cooking had been in mess halls, guards had been her babysitters, and female officers had taught her about feminine clothing and makeup. There hadn't been many people of her age group around either, and even though she didn't blame her Dad, it was nice to be able to get to know this sort of stuff.

At least, that was the case until it became clear that whatever had been stifling the Saotome Matriarch's mothering instincts had been holding back a flood.

"They want us to go back there faster?" Hotaru asked, hope flaring in her eyes.

Ranma gave off a reluctant shrug. "Well, they were willing to let us hang around here, but they might need our help, so they're going to have us come back sooner."

"Of course. If they need our help, we really should go on and head there."

"You don't wanna do anything first?"

"Not really. We have to hurry out as soon as possible," his childhood friend murmured.

"If you say so. Sorry about this, Mom."

"It's perfectly understandable," Nodoka allowed, sadly smoothing out the fabric that she'd spread over one arm. "You both seem to be in a rush, after all."

Something about the way that the words had come out made Hotaru feel guilty, and she flushed a bit as she pressed a hand onto Nodoka's. "We really do want to visit properly with you, but they need us."

"I know, my dear. I am a martial artist's wife, you know. They do tend to run off on training journeys and such fairly often."

"This has to do with the military though..."

"Which makes it all the more worrisome, but I could not bear to keep the two of you from your duty. Just promise me one thing."

"What?"

"Make sure that you come back, would you?" the elder woman murmured softly.

"Absolutely!"

The certainty in the girl's voice seemed to touch Nodoka, and so she reached out and gave her a gentle embrace, almost as if she was holding something precious.

As she was let go and his mother went to hug an embarrassed Ranma, Hotaru found herself rather happy that this woman liked her so much. Oh, it wasn't from the fact that it meant that she had gotten approval from her childhood love's mother, although that was part of it. Rather, she was happy that she was getting affection from someone who was so nice and kind, and who seemed to really like her a lot.

That didn't stop her from glancing over at the pile of kimono fabric and feeling relief that she would be leaving it behind.

* * *

Going down the street was something that Akane was fairly used to, as she tended to do it all the time. It was a way to go home after all, and that made it easy to understand. Of course, she knew a lot about Furinkan, seeing as she had spent most of her life there. Save for a few family trips, she'd spent her time in this ward, growing up, and growing familiar with its character and quirks.

But as she swung her schoolbag as she walked, she couldn't help but notice that things really had changed. Why, an 'urban legend' had been proven to be true when the Sailor Senshi had been revealed. Then there was that attack in Washington, which was really scary. And to top it all off, _aliens_ had come to attack the Earth.

For all that this had seemed to be from an action cartoon, she was happy that she was safe here in Tokyo. Nothing major seemed to happen here, and she wasn't looking for that to change. All that she wanted to do was to enjoy her life as a schoolgirl, and to maybe follow in her father's footsteps a little. She wasn't trying to be the best, but it was nice to compete in a karate tournament here or there.

Now, all that she wanted to do was to get together with a nice and mature young man and have a nice stable life.

What she got were screams that seemed to eerily feminine for the most part. Even as she took note of the fact that there were male cries of indignation mixed in there, she felt the part of her that rose up when her classmates were being harassed growing. Something was happening, and she was pretty sure that she didn't like it. That was especially true when she saw girl after girl cringing in anger, fear, and disgust. It was clear that something was coming her way, and she braced herself for it.

However, whatever it was zipped around her faster than she could react. This normally would have been an inconvenience at the very least, but it was clear that this wasn't just some normal sort of troublemaker. No, the perpatrator went as far as flipping up her skirt, making it so that her long legs and white cotton panties were on display for all to see.

"Ahhh! Nooo!" she shrieked, swinging her back wildly as she tried to get her behind out of sight.

This merely got a chuckle out of the offender, who then bounced around her attempt at attacking back. But her reaction didn't seem to bother him, as he was grinning as he jumped up. Landing on her bosom, he took a few trial squeezes before looking thoughtful. "You're not quite as built up here, but damn, you _are_ a feisty one, aren't you."

"An... alien?" Akane screamed, not quite sure that a human could look like that thing.

"I'm hurt. I'm all man, baby. Why don't you give me a kiss to make me feel better."

With an apparently non human life form groping her chest and trying to make out with her, the teenager wanted to get out of there.

* * *

"AGH!" said Akane Tendo, swinging her bookbag. That each swipe missed the leaping little lech was just further infuriating.

"Hmmm, you have a fair amount of ki but nowhere near what I'm looking for, my dear," said the old man, going from defense to offense in a moment and bouncing her off a brick wall.

Akane blearily watched the old man bouncing off and wondered why she had to put up with weirdoes like that.

Well, fortunately, there was a hotline set up after the attempted invasion. If you saw aliens, pieces of spacecraft, or anything like that - you call the number on the commercials.

Little alien pervert gropers sounded about right.

Fortunately, she had her cellphone with her.

* * *

"One hundred fifty calls with the same description from Nerima ward in Tokyo," said the dispatch manager. "All report the same thing."

"Okay, what is it?" asked the liason.

"Something that looks like a grotesque old oompah-loompah. Wearing a brown gi, smells like something that hasn't been washed in a half-century or more, roughly three feet tall. Some details vary but it apparently has a scrawny moustache, bald on top, and there are reports that it's eyes glowed every so often. Some of those touched by it indicate they feel drained afterwards, though mostly just disgusted and angry," said the manager.

"Glowing eyes? Could be a Goa'uld then," said the JSDF liason. "Though the energy drain sounds like a youma."

"Could a Goa'uld parasite infest a youma?" asked the manager.

"Unknown," said the liason. "I'll relay it though. Try to figure out where it's going, and we'll let the police try an ambush first. While they're doing that, I'll check with the specialists."

* * *

"I sense something odd," said Hotaru, slowing down a little beside Ranma.

"Yeah," said Ranma. "Some strong chi nearby. Moving closer."

Hotaru and Ranma went back to back, their training with SG-X and experience on strange worlds coming back to them.

There were others on the street though, including one girl leaning against a wall for some reason. She didn't want to transform in front of anyone as it might mean she could never go shopping again without facing a mob.

"It's circling," said Ranma, his voice having an odd sound to it.

Hotaru looked around, trying to spot the source of the uneasy sensation she was getting.

"Incoming," said Ranma abruptly, shifting around and heading for a shimmer. What followed was too fast for Hotaru to see anything more than blurs. It was as bad as when he'd fought KOS-MOS, except the bluish light indicated he was unsealing manuevers from his experiments with that energy he'd gotten from that 'chaos' person.

Ranma blocked, parried, slipped around one attack, and found his own counter-attacks being blocked.

The attacker bounced away to a stop to look at him. "Hmph. Not too shabby. I might have to get serious."

"I could say the same," countered Ranma.

Hotaru considered for a few moments before bowing her head in concentration. When she opened her eyes again, it was as Sailor Saturn.

"Hotcha!" said the alien being, bouncing around to a better angle of attack.

* * *

Happosai didn't know what to make of the boy who had come to fight him. The kid was good for his age, but he was too young to really understand how much he had to learn. Why, by the time that he was as old as that boy, he'd traveled over countless distances, faced many challenges, and had the chance to grope some of the greatest warrior women the world had ever seen. Certainly the youngster was good, and clearly was talented enough to garner an interest in training the lad, but the elderly martial arts master simply could not see him being all that worth long term attention.

However, there was a cutie pie that just screamed that out a need for attention without having to make a sound. She might have been young, but she was certainly pretty, with delicate features and big violet eyes to give her an air of fragility. On top of that, she had some lovely legs that were smooth and oh so appealing to the male sensibility. It was like a fairy had come to Earth and taken human size, just for his benefit. And what made it even better was that she looked to have one of those stylized sailor outfits that those 'Sailor Senshi' were supposed to bear.

Here was an attractive young lady wearing a rather skimpy outfit and likely had energy to spare for him. There was no way that he was going to give _her_ up, and so he charged right in. Being able to cuddle against such a precious beauty was too alluring to ignore. "Hotcha!"

"EEK!" Saturn screeched, her eyes going wide as she brought her Glaive up to shield herself. "Silent Wall!"

As he came close to reaching his prize, with all the silky treasures she likely had for him, Happosai was surprised as he wound up bouncing off something that felt very solid. But the the only thing between them had been the air, and that would have meant that he had been repelled by that. That confused him though, as she hadn't used any sort of technique that could have forced a wind to come at him, and even if she had, it didn't feel like a counter blow. What it did feel like was hitting his head against the side of a large building, and not one of those shoddy ones either. No weak barrier could have set the stinging and soreness that had now seeped into his face after striking himself directly into it.

Given a chance, the elderly pervert was sure that he could figure out what the problem was... but then he didn't have that opportunity. Instead, he had to jump out of the way as that pigtailed boy from earlier came right at him. Such a thing normally wasn't a problem, but this time the kid was coming with such force that he was able to smash a crater in the street. With his experience and abilities, Happosai was able to dodge, but it was clear that this lad was more powerful than he appeared.

Of course, Ranma wasn't thinking of that, as he went to chase after the old pervert that had just tried to assault his childhood friend. Despite the fact that Hotaru was 'Sailor Saturn', she was still the little girl that he'd grown up with, and he cared too much about her to let her be treated like that. So, it had gone beyond a mere search to see what was going on, and it had had turned into an urge to get the gnome that was attacking her.

Not that Happosai was just sitting around for it. Hopping backwards, the old man tried to keep out of the way of the pigtailed boy's reach. No matter how weak the kid might be, getting hit wouldn't have been all that amusing. Due to that, he decided to put some distance between the two of them, and so he grabbed some nearby signs and decided that they would make good projectiles.

Improvised weapons were something that the teenaged martial artist was used to, and so he was perfectly able to avoid them. All that he had to do was to twist his body around, and he was able to let them sail right by him. In fact he even did it once in mid air, twirling about so that the thrown 'missiles' wound up flying beneath him as he jumped over them. Unfortunately, this also allowed them to go sailing through some storefronts, sending glass sailing everywhere, with the shards falling like a sparkling rain across the sidewalk. Displeased with how that was going, Ranma bolted forward, intent on landing a blow before he could be detected.

The problem was that Happosai had trained himself to be ready for unseen threats, and so he already had his pipe out for what had to be done. As Ranma came close to him, he hooked him with the smoking implement, and then twisted about, using the force of the spin to send his young opponent flying. The boy sailed right to the upper floor of a building, crashing through the wall, and causing a gaping hole where a formerly flat surface had been.

Pulling himself out of the wreckage, the pigtailed teen appeared in the hole just long enough to kick up some debris and send it flying right back at the geriatric pervert that had been causing him so much trouble. It was a veritable shower of materials, each with rough edges that held points in many cases, and likely would at the very least delay the creep. In that way, it did do its job... but then again, they also pierced several nearby cars, not only making them unusable, but making all sorts of liquids start leaking over the asphalt.

Realizing that there was a problem, Happosai decided that it would be best to strike before the boy could come close. When the kid jumped all the way from the ruined building back down to the street, the elderly martial arts master knocked a small steel drum into the air. Using it to attack wasn't the point though, as he knew that it was likely that his young opponent could dodge it. But, he could use it as an obstacle, and so he bounced it back, planning on having it give the boy reason to pause.

What he didn't expect was for it to be smacked away, sending it sailing right into a grill restaurant. That was annoying, to say the least, but it did put things into perspective. Fighting like this was a problem, and he didn't want to have to face it. Sending some ash from his pipe, he tried to blind the boy... but perhaps he should have also paid more attention to his surroundings.

Had Happosai done so, he might have noticed that he'd severed a gas line in his previous attack... and that the wind wasn't quite blowing the way that was in his best interest.

As a result, the restaurant wound up blowing up in a massive fireball that sent shards of material, from shattered furniture to pieces of steel shooting out to pepper the neighborhood around them. The shrapnel tore through the area around them, and did horrible things for the property values there.

And in the light of the flickering flames, the two fighters squared off, ready for their next exchange of attacks.

* * *

The two leapt at each other, the size difference between the two apparent only for the brief period of time that they were visible to the naked eye.

Akane Tendo, staring from a building not too far away, was reminded of a strobe effect.

Flick. The boy was bringing an axe-kick down upon the alien, who met it with arms crossed over his head. The impact still managed to crater the street underneath the alien.

Flick. The alien critter was glowing with energy, becoming huge. Which ended an eyeblink later when the girl with the polearm cut his giant form in half.

Flick. The alien slammed into a purple-tinted forcefield surrounding the girl, bouncing off.

Flick. The alien was suddenly there, at most four feet away from her, with the boy elbow-spiking him in the kidneys hard enough that there was an alien-shaped indentation in the pavement.

Flick. The boy had drawn two large metal kukri-style blades and was cutting through the old alien pervert's pipe?

Flick. The old pervert alien was driving two fingers through one of the blades. The boy was off-balance for just a moment.

Whick-thunk!

"YEOWTCH!" exclaimed the little alien pervert, pulling a bunch of roses out of his butt.

Then a fog rose up and Akane couldn't see a thing.

Well, other than lightning crackling around. And what looked like a flamethrower going off. And lots of smaller electrical crackles.

"!"

Akane blinked at that, as it had started off delighted and ended up as if in horrible pain.

* * *

The JSDF had responded to events with the sort of inventiveness and speed not normally associated with military chain-of-command, but with everything going on - that might have just been facing a sink-or-swim situation and learning to swim really really fast.

There were some few zat-guns to go around, but other weapons were developed and constructed.

Naturally, those who had NORMAL guns looked on with envy at those who had newer hardware. Not that normal firearms were obsolete by any means. It's just that almost everyone wanted the new stuff.

Then again, they were there mainly to act as support.

With the fog put out by Sailor Mercury in place, light-amplification was useless. As was IR, UV, or laser.

So what they COULD do was what they DID do. Form a cordon outside the fog, emplace sensors and prepare to shoot any oompah-loompah aliens that might come out of there. With weapons that were tied to sensor devices specifically to counter super-fast yoma.

Then too, there were Jupiter's Jaffa, who wanted to prove their worth to their Lord.

* * *

"It's so fast!" cried out Sailor Moon.

"Back to back, keep formation," said Sailor Mercury. "It seems to be mainly a melee-type. Limited ranged attacks."

"AHHHH!" cried out Sailor Saturn as something managed to latch onto the front of her outfit.

"Okay, that does it," said Ranma, rising up out of where he'd been pounded into the pavement. "Now if I could just see the little monster."

Ranma frowned, trying to feel the chi of the little gnome. Odd that he didn't FEEL alien.

* * *

Happosai grabbed the bow on the chest of the little girl, felt what felt like a promise of things to come, and then got shoved off by purple lightning?

"Got you," said the boy as something HURT a lot more than he'd ever felt in his very long life.

Then there was this blinding white light everywhere as this blonde with two ponytails announced something that sounded very silly.

* * *

He didn't know exactly what it was that the blonde had hit him with, but to Happosai it felt like he had been splashed with seltzer water. Not that it was all that unpleasant a feeling. Rather, it was like some bite of cool freshness had splashed all over his body, with tingling 'pops' running all along his wrinkled skin.

Oddly enough, it did leave him unable to move, but that was more from being overwhelmed by what it was doing to him than anything else. Whatever it was washed over him so that all his focus and thoughts just seeped out of it. It took him several moments to gather enough concentration to actually be able to consider things again.

Fortunately, it didn't seem that she had meant to hurt him, and the elderly martial arts master was mighty appreciative of that. That allowed him to gather the last goal that he'd had, and he remember setting his attention on young girls. Of course, he could see the reasoning for that quite easily. Young girls were pure, they were untouched by life, and they were so much _fun_ to be around. Happosai knew deep in his heart that he liked playing with them. Just thinking about being around little ladies set his heart alight... and he didn't even bat an eye as he recognized that they might be around boys. The more that there were, the merrier it would be, and he looked forward to having lads joining in on the play.

After all, there was much enjoyment to be had playing 'hide and seek', 'kick the can' and other such games with the wee ones.

Once he was able to, he'd have to go and find some little ones to share his time with. Doing so wouldn't be that hard, seeing as they would be at the kindergartens or the park. The thing was to get them to realize that he just wanted to have fun like they would.

* * *

On a scale from 'one' to 'ten' of just how bad his day was going, Jack O'Neill would have had to rate his as a 'seven' or so. That was saying something for a man who had the enslaved minions of body snatching aliens shooting at him on a regular basis. Yet, that was perfectly understandable, given the current circumstances.

As it was, he was currently pinned to a wall by an alien sphere that they had tried to get rid of moments before he'd gotten hit by the device. What made it worse was how he wasn't being pressed against the wall, but was stabbed through his shoulder like a butterfly in a display case. On top of that, he felt like he was burning up, and he was being held up high where his feet didn't quite touch the ground.

To be honest, this wasn't one of his better days.

There wasn't much to do, other than to... 'hang around'. It wasn't like he could go anywhere, so he got to watch what was going on. The fact that those in the observation area didn't come in didn't bother him, as he'd rather not involve more people than he had to. On that note, he could perfectly understand why the soldiers near the door were hesitant to come his way.

At that moment, what did disturb him was the fact that Carter seemed to be arguing with someone outside. Waving her hands, her expression said a lot about what sort of words that she was using. And since he could see the strain she was under trying to look respectful, he knew that it had to be something important.

In what seemed to be a bit of luck, she soon came his way, allowing him to have his own conversation with her. "Why, hello there, Carter. It's nice of you to drop by."

"Sorry, sir," Samantha murmured with a wince. "We've been trying to figure out a way to help you, sir."

"And, what, you and all those bright lights they have out there haven't found out at least something to get the job done."

"Well, there was one idea that was suggested."

"Really? what was it."

"Actually... I... I don't know," the blonde murmured.

"Okay..."

"The thing is..."

"Just out with it, Carter!" he bit out.

"Are you sure..."

"Yes!"

"Okay..." she began, and then swallowed. "They want to bring in a staff weapon."

"Okay they're going for the paper clip... Wait, guns?"

"Pretty much."

O'Neill gave her a weak lop sided grin. "Hey, I'm all for shooting the nasty shiny death ball."

"Oh, it's not that we're supposed to aim at."

"There isn't that much here to do that with right now, but..."

As he trailed off, she reluctantly gazed into his eyes with a sheepish expression.

"No, come on! Getting zapped and turned into a girl wasn't on my 'to do' list today!"

"I told them that you wouldn't be that keen on it," Carter admitted.

"Then what exactly would that help with?"

"Near as we can tell? If nothing else, it could help you deal with your situation better. From the data, it seems that you are tougher and heal faster like that. And who knows, maybe you could manage to free yourself at the same time with that 'super strength.'

"This is getting to be even more of a ball than I would have imagined," Jack growled as he tried not to imagine himself as a 'cheesecake' poster.

* * *

Samantha Carter left the room.

When she returned it was to drop to one knee, point a device at her commanding officer and pull the trigger.

If the blast had hit the sphere, it would have absorbed it.

"Damnit, why in the face?"

"It was a clear shot, sir," said Samantha, ready to flee.

The transformation, to Jack's point-of-view, took nearly a minute. With bounces and jiggles and shifting mass. To an outside observer, the process was nearly instantaneous.

Jack-chan reached up and grabbed the pole that had gone through his shoulder and heaved. The alien device attempted to discourage this by sending an electric current through him. Absorbing THAT energy as well, it was converted to physical strength.

* * *

_flashback_

"I really don't like this," said Jack in his female form.

"Interesting," said Sailor Mercury, scanning for every piece of data she could.

"Watch," said Samantha Carter, pulling out a zat gun and shooting Jack.

"HEY!" said Jack, not liking that at all.

"Sir, we've already determined that ANY energy striking you simply increases the power and duration of your transformed state," pointed out Samantha.

"Got it," said Sailor Mercury. "It looks like there's an upper limit to that, but..."

"Tell me you can give them that figure and they DON'T have to keep shooting me with bigger and bigger guns," pleaded the transformed Jack.

"No, Colonel," said Sailor Mercury. "Some kinds of energy you most likely won't be able to tap into. Extreme heat, some magical attacks most likely. However, electricity, particle beams, radiation, and some other radiant energies - you can absorb mostly without problem up until you pass that threshold. Your strength and apparent invulnerability will increase with the amount of energy you take in, and using that strength and invulnerability will deplete that energy. It's just that if you take in too much and don't deplete it - that threshold might cause you to explode."

"That would be bad," said Jack to Samantha, trying to point out that particular opinion.

"Sorry, Jack-chan," said Sailor Mercury, unfortunately giving everyone in the base a handy way of referencing female-Jack versus normal male Jack.

* * *

Eventually alien metal and Jack-chan's superstrength reached a compromise as the concrete behind him cracked and provided a bit more leverage.

"I liked that arm," said Jack-chan as she tried to staunch the bloodflow now that she was free. As well as missing a good chunk of shoulder.

"You heal very quickly in that form, Colonel," said Samantha Carter, remaining out of reach. "In fact."

"Oh no, don't you dare-" began Jack-chan as Samantha pulled the trigger again.

* * *

"Colonel O'Neill is not exactly happy," observed General Hammond.

"No, he's not," said Janet, who wasn't going anywhere near the Colonel. Nope, quite content to watch from security videos. "The second staff-blast has clearly triggered his healing factor."

"I'm more concerned with the viral growth shown in the walls where that sphere's rod penetrated at the moment," said General Hammond.

"Yes, sir, we're pumping air out of the gateroom as quickly as we can, going with the theory that the artifact was triggered when it was brought into an atmosphere," said one of the observing technicians.

"We've still got those spacesuits, and an airlock will be rigged, when everything's in place we can put the device back," reported Morisato.

The lights flickered.

"Okay," said Siler. "Wasn't expecting that."

The lights went out.

* * *

The JSDF and local authorities had started the cleanup.

The twitching little alien groper was loaded into a box and then the box was placed on a truck which drove away.

The Sailor Senshi vanished quickly, leaping away, though the blonde with the twin-ponytail style seemed to want a give a speech and was stopped by the one with the long dark hair.

The boy and girl who'd originally held off the monster simply walked off, giving a nod of the head towards the authorities as they did so.

Akane Tendo watched it all, aware she was late - but this was something completely unexpected that had shown her a world unlike anything she had experienced before.

Prior to this, she'd been in the school's Karate Club and Drama Club. She'd had, as far as she could tell, a somewhat weird life in that she was the heir of her family's school of karate.

Akane considered that world she'd just glimpsed. Weirdness abounded. She could walk away now, and most likely that would be it. She'd most likely never get molested by aged alien gnomes, see martial arts manuevers that were right out of videogames, or get involved with the sort of urban legends that had been restricted to another ward of Tokyo altogether just a year ago.

She'd never realized how ordinary her life had been, nor as grateful for that quality.

Picking up her bookbag, Akane Tendo gave a thoughtful look towards where the girl and boy were still visible as they walked away. Maybe she wouldn't complain about how weird it was to be the school's karate champion after this. She had a new benchmark to measure weirdness with.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES: There were enough requests to see what was up with Akane and the Tendo family that this brief look was included.


	37. Chapter 37: Dispatches and Departures

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything. Don't have money. Just written to hone skills and amuse readers. Originally written by myself and Kender_Sci over at the Anime Addventure.

Chapter 37: Dispatches and Departures

* * *

Her brow furrowed with the deep concentration going on in her mind, but Akane found that her thoughts kept on circling the same idea. Oh, a part of her sang over the possibility that she could escape exams and idiotic boys with a trip into adventure. If it could have been anything like what were in those comics her sister read, she could have met interesting people, traveled to exotic lands, and done much good. And she had to admit that beating up some jerks... and having it be what she was expected to do was appealing.

But then reality set in, and she quickly began to realize that jumping into that sort of chaos just wasn't for her. For all of the attitude that Nabiki said that she had, she tended to have things calm and controlled. There were responsibilities, and she'd always admired how Kasumi could not only manage college courses, but was able to help out in the house on a regular basis.

No matter how much she had to admit that her attempt at stroganoff had been a disaster, what was around Akane was even _worse_. Buildings were shattered, grooves were cut into the street, and lampposts had been sheared like branches in a windstorm. It was like a 'perfect storm' in the form of a typhoon, earthquake, and a inferno combined had settled upon this place.

And it had all been done by an alien pervert gnome, a boy of her age, and a delicate girl.

Akane's hands tightened on the handle of her schoolbag as she recognized the level on which the fight had happened. Having fought the best high school athletes that were around, or decking a jerk who groped her ass on a train was one thing, but she hadn't been able to touch any of these guys. What she had done was like a fly trying to swat at a person, and no matter how she cursed her weakness, she wasn't going to ignore it. Hell, she didn't even know if she wanted to get into a headache that big.

Her concerns were more mundane, and as she considered it, she figured that she liked them better than she did her chances in going into that. Suddenly, dealing with boys who admired her more for her lithe physique, or girls who delighted in how 'cool' she was, was more welcome than she had ever thought. Seeing as she hadn't trained her whole life in some esoteric fighting style, she wasn't going to start tempting fate now. At best, she could learn some advanced techniques and hope that she could do better when the next chance came along.

In the mean time, she could do other things if she wanted to. Perhaps she could even go out and join the Self Defense Forces, if she still felt like going to distant lands. Right now though, she was looking to keep her grades up, get into a good college, and find a good man to marry.

Not wanting to be some thoughtless tomboy who would just jump into acting, Akane turned on her heel and started marching way from the ruins that had been the street. She had things to do, and they wouldn't get done if she was daydreaming around there. There was homework to struggle through, and her training would suffer if she didn't keep it up. On top of that, she had chores do to, and knew that her help eased the burden on her family.

That wasn't to say that she didn't glance back over her shoulder as she walked and wondered if she would see that boy with the pigtail and the petite girl in the stylized sailor uniform again.

* * *

"Anyone have any idea as to what just happened?" General Hammond asked no one in particular.

One voice echoed in through the darkness. "Sorry, sir."

"Then could you find out, Siler. Having my command so vulnerable isn't exactly something that I enjoy."

"Of course, sir. We'll move as fast as we can, but without the computers..."

"Understood," the general allowed, and then scowled. "I just hope that the power will be up in time to make those damned machines usable."

"Uhhh... Sir?" came a hesitant voice.

"What is it, Walter?"

"The computers aren't exactly off..."

"But the power is down."

Harriman's voice was apologetic as he spoke. "I'm not sure about that, sir. You see... the screens..."

"What about... What is this?" Hammond muttered as he looked over the flickering images on the displays.

* * *

"Communications with Cheyenne Mountain are down," said the Sergeant. "So we can't transport you back there right now."

"Oh," said Ranma, eyeing the transport rings.

"Are you up to another mission?" asked the Sergeant, cocking his head. "There's a reconn mission your skills might be suitable for."

"Why? What's up?" asked Ranma.

"There were multiple reports of what might have been Jaffa pilots making emergency landings," said the Sergeant. "There's one in territory where we'd need civilians to do the initial investigation as a military presence is NOT authorized. We'd need to find a translator though. We don't have equipment set up for automatic translation of this dialect."

"Where is it?" asked Ranma, not committing but still curious.

"China," said the Sergeant. He spread out a map on the table. "Here. Bayankala Mountains."

"After seeing that gnome creature," put in another soldier, "we're giving slightly more credence to these reports."

* * *

"Great," said Jack-chan. "Tell me I've got a target to take this out on."

"Unfortunately, sir, the aliens appear to be stored as subspacial data within the sphere," said Samantha, who was sure to put a table between her and the neo-woman. She'd already noticed that going to female form messed up Jack's emotional equilibrium, thank you very much. Jack in his empowered girl form was also much more prone to lash out in simple physical terms as opposed to his more usual snarky comment.

"No chance I can just reach in and slap 'em?"

* * *

"Ranma Saotome? Hotaru Tomoe?" asked the woman. "Melissa Mao."

"Oh, yes," said Hotaru with a bow. "I remember you from the assault on Beryl's base."

"Ah, well there was a lot going on then," said the woman. "Forget my military ranking with Mithril, as I'm going in as a translator and guide. We're not operating with the blessings of the Chinese government after all."

* * *

"Analysis complete, Behemoth's performance was less than optimal."

"What was your first clue, that the operator went nuts and on a rampage through Washington DC in front of the cameras?"

"No, and you know that's not what I meant. Behemoth should have swatted aside those attacks like you would a swarm of mosquitos. We can build a better one."

"Let's drop the giant robot angle actually, gentlemen. Warships are the wave of the future. Let the construction industry use such things as giant robots. We'll be pulling everyone's strings including those who play with such puppets."

* * *

"Captain Harrington's been transferred?"

"Yes, that's what I've heard. Something to do with Senator Kinsey's office getting some revenge for making him look like a fool. She's going to be flying a desk on something they're building in an outer orbit. A 'Gauss Cannon Anti-Ship Satellite' is what I heard."

"Too bad. I thought she had promise."

* * *

To say that Hotaru had never gone camping before would have been actually fairly inaccurate. With the soldiers that had become her surrogate 'aunts' and 'uncles', she had been taken on fishing trips and picnics all the time. And while she had not grown terribly knowledgeable about such things, they had been fairly nice times for her to feel cared for and to be a part of a 'family'.

She just hadn't been quite aware of just how different it was to be taking a journey like the one that she was on now.

"Are you feeling okay?" Melissa Mao asked her as they hiked along the mountain trail.

Giving an embarrassed smile, Hotaru ducked her head. "I'll be okay. It's just that this isn't like the camping trips I was on. And it wasn't like when we were setting up Refuge..."

"I'd figure as much. Remember, we're not looking for a nice day trip, kiddo. But there is one thing."

"What?"

"Don't get too tense." The soldier gave the teenaged girl a meaningful glance. "You could get yourself all worked up and jump before you need to."

"Oh, right. I'll try to do better."

"You're doing fine. Just keep an eye out, and you should be fine."

"And not only for those pilot guys," Ranma murmured.

Mao glanced over at the pigtailed boy. "You think that the PLA will be that quick to act on finding us out here?"

"Nah. Sure, if you get the wrong guy, we could be in trouble, but that's not the point. You see, the way that my old man put it, there were plenty of tribes out there that don't really care about whose in charge of the country. They just keep on going however they like it, and might not be too happy to have someone fighting on their lands."

"I hope that we don't get them mad..." Hotaru breathed.

"You shouldn't worry about that too much," Melissa pointed out. "Who could just stumble into trouble _that_ quickly?"

* * *

Leaning back in his chair, the section chief took a long look at his subordinate and thanked his lucky stars that he hadn't gotten one of those arrogant blowhards. Instead, the boy that he'd been assigned didn't seem to have any sense of self importance, and understood that a desk job wasn't exactly a 'do or die' mission. The guy might have been terribly easy going, but that wasn't really any sort of condemnation, especially when all that they had to do was to continually do the same sort of paperwork.

So, as he folded his hands over his slight paunch, he peered at that young man over the computer system on his desk. "Are you sure that you really want to go that far in this?"

"Well, don't we have a duty to make certain that this is done?" his subordinate asked.

"Yes... But this is the pension department, son. It will be done in its due time.

"Perhaps, but don't we owe something to the people who have worked so long and hard in the service of our military?" the younger man stated, raising his brows as he did so. "Especially an admiral who is as well respected and beloved as this one?"

"I suppose that you are right. Though I'm surprised about your insistence."

"Really? Why?"

"Well, you didn't seem to have a patriotic fervor before. It's nice to see that you have such dedication to your job. I'm impressed," the elder officer admitted.

"Well, thank you, sir. I joined up as soon as I saw those ads, you know. I figured that if all those women were going into outer space, then I should too. And I will say that I really seemed to blow my interviewer away."

"That really is good to hear. We do need good individuals in the forces now."

"Dependable and consistent, that's me. I don't need some medal or something. All that I ask for is a regular paycheck and a nice place to stay," the new recruit insisted.

"Very good. Such dedication is fairly rare."

"Just what I try for, sir."

"Then I won't delay you any more. We can finish our game later. You go and deliver that pension check."

"Don't you worry, sir. You can count on me. I, Justy Ueki Tylor will go forth and make certain that Admiral Hanner gets his due reward for all that he has done as a fine officer," the brown haired man declared, snapping a cheerful little salute as he did so.

* * *

"They are really something else," Ono-D commented as he leaned against a wall.

Shirai gave a small sniff as he looked down his nose at the other boy. "Well, what did you expect?"

"I don't know. We could have gotten anything..."

"Me? I always hope for the best."

"I'd say that we more than got that," Ono-D chuckled.

"You're right about that."

The objects of their discussion didn't seem to deign to even acknowledge that the conversation was happening. Instead, the pair of twins continued on down the hallway, keeping themselves apart from the general crowd around them. Yet, being along didn't seem to bother them, as they didn't even try to talk to anyone.

Ono-D grinned. "We've got ourselves some exotic beauties..."

"Those girls are Chinese, right?" Shirai asked, though it was clear that he knew the answer.

"Uh-huh, and that's not all. Look at those legs. All long and slender..."

Pursing his lips, Shirai almost looked thoughtful. "Yu Fan does have that long ponytail..."

"I don't know. There's something to be say for Yu Lan's short hair."

"At least they have the right... bounce."

"You got that right."

From her position nearby, Mizuki let her brow furrow for a long moment before snorting at the boys' behavior. The two might not have been normally all that friendly with each other, but they had apparently found something to somewhat bond over. However, what they were 'appreciating' wasn't exactly what she thought all that highly about.

"I can't believe those two. How could they be so much like pigs?" she growled.

Pushing her glasses up further on her nose, Kyoko peered at the two boys in question. "I don't know, but I'd think that I'd expect it of them. But didn't you used to date Shirai before?"

"Don't remind me. To tell the truth, it might have been best for me to have Kaname and that idiot Sosuke mess it up on me."

"Then why did you go out with him in the first place?"

"He's way handsome and had a great sense of style?" Mizuki protested. "How was I supposed to know that he was a hound dog?"

"I guess that I can understand that. But you certainly did luck out in this case."

"Don't I know it."

Neither boy seemed to take note of the fact that the two Japanese girls were watching them, as they were too busy gawking at the backs of the Chinese twins' skirts.

* * *

The Guide got all sorts here. Not many tourists, but those few who did show up were a motley crew. Sometimes they could be trouble though. Just look at what happened when those escaped criminals had come through four years ago.

So when three foreigners showed up, he quickly sized them up.

The boy was easy - a martial artist. Black lantern pants, red silk sleeveless shirt, bracers, typical wear. Heavy backpack. Muscular with that slender-seeming build that accentuated speed and accuracy. The Jusenkyo Guide saw enough martial artists in this area of China to determine that the boy was among those ranks.

The guide of the three looked Chinese but had an odd accent when she spoke. Also a martial artist, or some kind of fighter. She acted relaxed but the flick of her eyes as she checked out potential ambush points gave that much away. Other than that he was unsure of her. The predominant accent was Hong Kong, but the Guide thought maybe she was from elsewhere.

The young girl who didn't stray far from the boy was quite obviously his girlfriend. Her own backpack was less than half the size of the others. Almost delicate looking.

The boy and girl spoke Japanese predominantly, with many English words peppering their brief conversations.

Oh well, time to do his job. "This is scenic Jusenkyo. Over one hundred cursed springs here."

"'Cursed'?" asked Melissa.

"This is a training ground where two martial artists duel by leaping from one bamboo pole to another, right?" asked the boy which was eventually translated by their guide.

"That is how the springs were used, but it is too dangerous now," pointed out the Guide. "Anyone who immerses themselves in a spring is hit by a transformation curse. Whatever initially drowned in the spring sets the template. When a victim is struck by cold water, they then turn into what the spring's template is. Hot water reverses."

The two younger customers talked about this, and the name 'Jack' came up several times. Though the Guide understood that 'Jack' was also a slang term in English that could mean the operator of a vehicle. They also mentioned someone named 'Sam' who might find this interesting.

Nobody sparred on the poles, which meant the Guide could do his job and not worry about people getting cursed. For which he was moderately grateful.

Being shown the other places in the area though, he regretfully informed them he could not do that. Something had recently happened which had caused some very odd martial arts fights to break out and as such it wasn't safe to go further in.

Which, of course, the three tourists found interesting enough to go further in.

Martial arts groupies of some kind then. The Guide shrugged as he waved goodbye to them. He was simply glad he wasn't a martial artist himself. Too often it seemed to shut down any common sense they might have been born with.

* * *

"Okay," said Melissa Mao, checking the sketched map from the Jusenkyo Guide. "We've got this Fortress Of The Musk over here, and this village of Chinese warrior women this way, and some inn over that way, and some mystic mountain over there."

"I didn't follow much of what he said," admitted Ranma. "I've spent a little time in China, but I didn't learn any of the local talk. You familiar with any of them?"

"Not a one," admitted Melissa. "I know this was just off the old Silk Road up until the Ming Dynasty went isolationist. The Fodor's I got said there's a lot of Muslims around here. There's quite a few prisons and work camps out here. Other than that just some minor details."

"Let's try the village of women then," suggested Hotaru. "If it's a village, they might be more willing to talk to travelers."

* * *

This day was just the sort of thing that Lieutenant Yamamoto had trained for, not that he was particularly fond of it. He was a naval man, who should have been on the bridge of a ship, helping to guide a crew in a battle, not organizing a security squad on land. But then again, it was the task of a soldier to go wherever his commanders needed him to act. Of course, it would have been easier to deal with if he didn't have two admirals barking orders to him from back at Norfolk, which was not only distracting, but was a pain, since they couldn't seem to agree, but were both in his command chain.

All this was needed to secure the safety of yet _another_ admiral, and that man's daughters, but he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Not only was the admiral in question living up on the top of a building, but the armed thugs who'd taken him hostage had a high yield explosive. So, he couldn't send in an attack squad, but at the same time, his superiors were demanding that he do something, which was about _all_ that they agreed on.

Unfortunately, the only problem with that was that he was not supposed to do such things. Such work was supposed to be done by other agencies, and the only reason that he was brought in was to control what was obviously a dangerous situation. However, he was supposed to wait for some agents from NCIS to pop on over, whenever they would manage to get to it.

All of this was making his head hurt, and he could feel himself grinding down on his teeth. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, he didn't know what he could do, but he did have some angles to work. At the very least, he had some very skilled commandos at his disposal, and he knew that if he could get a chance to give the order, they could do an infiltration. What he needed was that opportunity, and provided that he timed it right, he could make it into a major success. So, he looked over the various video feeds again... only to see someone strolling over to the building.

Slamming the door to the mobile command trailer open, he stormed over to where the much shorter man was idly walking right up to the front door. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Hmm? Right, here. Why do you ask?" the stranger said in a sleepy tone, but brightened when actually looked at the lieutenant. "Oh, hello there, sir. Sorry to bother you."

"Are you serious? Don't you know what's going on here?"

"Yes, you really do have a serious problem here, don't you? Myself, I don't envy you for the hassle that you have to deal with. Hostage taking is such a nasty business, don't you think?"

"Well, of course it is! Why, someone... Hold on! This isn't the time to discuss that! There are more important concerns right now!" Yamamoto snapped.

"And it speaks well of you that it's your job to handle it. That sort of task is always such a major thing, but you are such an excellent officer that you will accomplish your duty."

"Exactly, and all that is going on around you is my responsibility."

The other man's droopy gaze kind of ruined the serious nod that he gave. "Then I won't keep you busy, since you have other things to worry about. Besides, I have my own duty to accomplish. Right here, I have a pension check to deliver, and for the honor of the service, I can't let one of our own, especially a highly decorated man, go without his due reward, no matter how basic it is."

"Good for you," the lieutenant muttered, and then turned to nod for a moment at the list an aide passed into his hands. When he turned back, the stranger was already heading into the building. "Where do you think you're going?"

"The admiral is waiting for his pension check, and it is that is the task that I, Justy Ueki Tylor, have been given. So, I'm going to give it to him."

About the only think that the officer could do was stare as the apparently clueless man slipped right inside and disappeared.

* * *

"You know, there's been something that's been bothering me," Ranma said as he walked up the mountain trail.

Melissa turned her head to look at him, but didn't break her stride. "What's that?"

"We're supposed to be looking for those alien guys, right?"

"Something like that. Though I'm sure that if we find something else, we can work around it too."

"Oh, I'm sure about that. The thing is..." he began.

"Yeah?"

"What do we do with them? They ain't gonna want to go down all that easy."

"If we capture them, you mean," the older woman stated, letting the 'other option' go unsaid.

"Pretty much. I mean, it isn't like they're just going to want to let us walk them down the mountain."

"We could always use those pools back from when we talked to that guide," Melissa drawled with a snicker.

"You're going to transform them?" Hotaru commented, blinking slightly. "If it does work..."

"Then I'm not going near it," Ranma grunted.

"You think it works too."

"Hey, I've seen too much to second guess that sort of thing. Alien psychos, giant robot tanks... magical girls..."

At the mention of her own abilities, the violet eyed girl ducked her head.

"With all that we've seen, I'm not tempting fate, especially if it makes me wind up like Jack."

Wincing, both of his companions found that they had to nod at that.

* * *

As an officer, Yuriko Star liked to think that she was capable of handling most situations. One didn't succeed in the service if they didn't keep a good head on their shoulders. That might have mean that she did deny herself some things in life, but she was trying to do her best to her duty, and that meant that she was going to have to have self discipline and respect. With such control, she'd managed to deal with plenty of issues, from combat emergencies, to the idiots who only thought that young women were there to hit on, to the intricacies of intelligence analysis, to the vagaries of naval politics.

Not that she'd been particularly expecting to have being a hostage part of those experiences, but then she hadn't exactly been looking to add such an appointment in her day planner.

It didn't change the fact of her current situation though, as she was currently stuck in a run down apartment with two armed thugs watching over her and the residents. Apparently they were part of some 'Peace Force' looking to make 'friends' with the aliens, but the rifles that they carried were at odds with such 'idealistic goals'. There was something seriously off about them as well, since they kept on wearing hats tugged down low on their heads, and didn't show any of the signs that she'd have expected to see in anxious, self righteous and arrogant 'protesters'.

Unfortunately, she couldn't do much more than she already had, and it wasn't just because of the obvious bomb that they had. Her friends were there with her, and were apparently the actual targets of this attack. Sure, it was the home of a retired naval officer and his twin daughters, but Yumi and Emi's father was the famed Admiral Hanner, who had not only been a highly experienced officer, but was respected by both ally and enemy alike. His actions on the battlefield had been such that he had even been an inspiration to those he had fought.

And to think that he had been reduced to being an invalid dependent on his daughters for his care. Of course, her childhood friends had never shown any sort of issue with having to watch over him, but the idea that he was reduced to this was a horrible shame. For all that he had done for the service, and his country, he should have been taken care of, and not left to fend for himself.

Instead, they were there, were a pair of nasty customers looking to do bad things. Considering the fact that the two choices were either to be shot or blown up, she wasn't keen on going through with either one. That basically meant that she had to wait for a rescue, or see about getting herself and her friends out of it. About all that she could count on was herself, and she just needed to see when she would get a chance to act.

There was an opportunity to do so when she realized that there was a hole behind her. Although the admiral was too infirm to go, his daughters could have escaped that way, and she wanted them to get to safety. After all, as officers, it was the duty of herself and the admiral to sacrifice themselves for others if they had to. Even if there was no guarantee of success, she at least had to do something. But it hadn't work, and now she was stuck gritting her teeth as she saw the taller man holding a gun to the admiral's head. Despite the fact that as an officer and a father, he likely would have been willing to sacrifice his life for them, they couldn't let themselves cause his death.

Right then was when the bell was heard at the remnants of the front door.

"Pardon me!" called out a cheerful voice. "Seaman Justy Ueki Tylor, of the United States Navy, at your service!"

"The Navy!" Yuriko gasped, happy that _someone_ had come.

Rising from the bedside of the admiral, the blond terrorist pointed his rifle at the door.

That didn't seem to faze Yumi and Emi, who smiled as they responded in their usual chorus. "Have you come to solve our problems? Alright!"

"That's right. Seaman Tylor of the United States Navy," the young man said as he slid into the apartment. "Admiral Hanner, I'm here from the pension department to deliver your overdue check."

Everyone, including the terrorists, stopped to gape and stare at him.

"Sorry to interrupt. I can see that you're busy, but I thought that you'd want me to deliver this to you in person. Excuse me."

In his current state, all that the admiral could do was to lay there and smile as the seaman pressed the envelope containing the check into one of his hands.

"Don't be sad, admiral sir. I'd be glad to come and play chess with you any time."

Admiral Hanner gazed intently back at the young man.

"Okay, if you'll excuse me."

"Hold it right there," growled the squat one of the terrorist pair, jabbing the muzzle of his rifle into the seaman's cheek.

"Oh, but sir, I have other deliveries to make," Tylor gently protested... and then took a look around him. His gaze swept from Emi and Yumi, who both smiled at him, and then to Yuriko, who scowled. When he seemed to perk up at her attitude, she turned her nose away from him.

"Your deliveries, or your life," growled the stout terrorist. "Take your pick."

"Well, I suppose that I could hang out for a few minutes," Tylor idly allowed, and stepped over to where the women were sitting, plopping down among them. "Hello there. My name is Tylor. Looks like you've gotten yourself into a real jam. But now that I'm here, everything's going to be okay. Just relax and leave everything to me."

"Hold it, who do you think you..." Yuriko began.

"Excuse me. Shouldn't I be handcuffed? If you don't have any more, I can share hers."

Blinking, the young Naval officer could only sit with her mouth open as he gave a reluctant complaint as another set of handcuffs was produced. 'What is with this guy?' she thought to herself.

* * *

Genma was a bit thickly built, but nobody who'd seen him fight or train would mistake him for being simply fat and lazy.

"Most of you will drop out," said Genma as he addressed the crowd. "Those of you who stick through the next three weeks will improve your martial arts skills. You'll be working in small groups with advanced trainers. That is the 'Basic' course. Now, some of you may be wondering what the point of martial arts is in this day of automated warfare and space battles."

Nobody moved or twitched. All of this particular crowd were either Jaffa or military personnel. They knew better.

Genma Saotome continued. "Reflexes, spatial awareness, discipline. All of these benefit from martial arts training. Now some of you will be going on further. That's what the 'Advanced' course is for. Some of you might be under the misunderstanding that you'll eventually reach Ranma's level or my level in the Art. The goal of this course is not to reach our level, it is to reach the maximum level YOU are capable of."

Some brief stirring at that.

"I let you know that right off the bat because the three Senken schools I've invented and refined over the years are sealed to general students. Those are the highest end of the Martial Arts School I've developed, and trying to pull those off without having years of experience building up to them is likely to be fatal. Each group will be four students working with one of the advanced students," said Genma. "The advanced students are wearing red armbands. Squad leaders, I turn this over to you now."

* * *

Shampoo glared over the gag, straining against the chains holding her in place.

The village had been attacked, with odd grenade-style devices being thrown. She had been one of those knocked out by the devices, and it was obvious what these Outsider Men intended was not going to be pleasant.

They'd already shot several people with these odd staff-weapons. Now all she could do was glare at her captors as they went through the food storage.

Unexpected movement caught her eye, and she tilted her head to the side. More outsiders, those these looked different. A young man, a younger girl, and an older woman.

The staff-wielders immediately bellowed something in their foul language.

The youth said something that sounded like a challenge.

Staff-weapons fired, only to be stopped by a veil of purple that the young girl threw up? When had her clothes changed?

Shampoo blinked and watched as the boy simply VANISHED right in the middle of a fight.

Then he reappeared, this time among the staff-wielders, with one of the staff-wielders beginning a flight as the boy appropriated that particular staff-weapon.

Then the boy began demonstrating that he was actually pretty good at the martial arts. Not as good as SHE was, of course. Still, pretty good on the combat awareness and...

The staff wielder who'd been on top of one of the buildings stood up, levelling his weapon. Shampoo tried to yell a warning through the gag, but noticed the boy already reacting.

Except suddenly that staff-wielder was suddenly blown away by a chi-attack of some kind?

Shampoo's eyes tracked back. That young girl with the polearm was forming another ball of the same energies around the tines of her weapon and looking for targets?

Shampoo blinked as the sounds of fighting abruptly died. Her eyes flicked to the side, but with her field-of-vision restricted it took a few minutes before she spotted the boy again, this time dragging two of the larger invaders behind him by their heels. Whether they were dead or unconscious she couldn't immediately tell.

* * *

Yuriko knew that there were plenty of trying times when one joined the military. After all, the stress of being put into a fight where one might have to stay in the line of fire just for some sort of group objective was harsh enough. Then there were all the layers of secrecy and partial information going around which made it even more difficult. And she'd resigned herself to having to work through all these problems with a calm and focused mind.

Unfortunately, she was left to do nothing more at the moment than to glare at the young man who had cheerfully stepped right into a hostage situation. "What did you really think that you were doing?"

"Huh? I told you," Tylor commented, sounding puzzled that the question was even being asked. "To deliver Admiral Hanner's pension check."

"Why that was very..." Yumi trailed off.

"Kind of you," Emi finished off for her sister.

"Wow," he said, grinning widely. "It makes me really happy to hear you say that."

"Now hold on..." Yuriko began.

"But to have met a woman like you in a place like this makes me even happier! So what's your name?"

"It's Yuriko. Yuriko Star. Lieutenant Commander."

"Shut up," ordered the taller hostage taker. "I thought that I told you before. No talking, any of you."

As the muzzle of his gun moved towards the twins, Yuriko leaned protectively in towards them. "Hey, pick on someone your own size."

When the lieutenant commander went to raise herself up, Tylor grew very interested in view of her bottom that he was getting, which drew the hostage taker's interest as well.

Noting the two men leering at her, Yuriko quickly sat back down.

"A revolutionary fighting for his cause shouldn't be acting up like this..." the pension department officer murmured.

"Yes," the terrorist allowed. "You're right."

Turning her nose away from the two men, Yuriko went to look at her two childhood friends. A part of her wished that two cute girls like them didn't have to go through something as messy like this. The problem was that they didn't have a choice, and it was not like they could use being pretty as a weapon. Then again, there was a way that she'd just noticed that could be used as a distraction.

Muttering an apology to Yumi, she tugged up on the girl's skirt, exposing her panties to the two terrorists. That was more than enough to distract them, which was the whole point. Even as the younger girl squealed in dismay, the female officer was already in motion. Sweeping out the taller man's legs with a low kick, she moved quickly to take advantage of the situation. She jumped right up, making sure that her knee landed right in the face of the bulkier crook.

Then Tylor picked up the rifle as it landed on the floor... and handed it back to the heavyset terrorist. "Here, I think that you dropped this."

"Oh, thank you very much," said the hostage taker as he grasped his weapon.

"Why on Earth did you give him the gun _back_?" Yuriko demanded.

"What do you mean?" Tylor protested. "You're supposed to return things when people drop things."

"Not in this case..."

"Be quiet," the blond terrorist told her as he took off his sunglasses. "How many times are you going to fight back. You're only going to get yourself killed."

"Oh, he's gorgeous!" Emi and Yumi chorused, stars shining in their eyes.

Tylor swallowed hard. "That's one handsome guy."

* * *

Rubbing at her wrists, Shampoo looked around to see if she could locate where her village's rescuers were. Luckily, she didn't have to look far, given that they were the center of attention right then. With the crowd of people around them making so much noise, it was kind of hard to not notice their presence.

Of course, she had to wish that it had merely been her that had acted to fight off the raiders. _She_ was the Village Champion, after all, and it had been part of her honor to protect her land and neighbors. But when the strangers had arrived with staff weapons that had shot lightning, she hadn't had much of a chance. Not only were they stronger than the average person, but those blasts meant that they could fight at a distance. Even now, there were burns and crack marks all over the area around her.

As much as it bothered her to have been upstaged by the Outsider warriors, they had saved her people. That truly meant something important to her, and she wanted to pay them back for what they had done. On top of that, the male of the group seemed to be quite dutiful towards the two women with him.

Something about all this intrigued her, and along with her honor and her desire to find a partner like this pigtailed guy, she wanted to redeem herself against this enemy.

Somewhere out there had been a true enemy that had stepped onto her village, and she wanted to take the next fight to them.

* * *

"Oh, you're so wonderful!" Yumi commented, staring at the blond of the terrorist pair.

Emi was right up there with her sister. "So elegant!"

"A warrior must not be concerned with his looks," the tall man stated. "That is the essence of manliness."

"Ah, no. Looks are part of being a man. And with yours, I'm surprised that you aren't a model, a movie star, or something like that. Come on, looking at you, I'd say that you spend an hour in front of the mirror every morning," Tylor put in.

"Certainly not."

"Really? I wouldn't have thought that you'd look so good otherwise."

"What use would I have for a mirror?" the blond terrorist sighed.

"That's enough. Don't let him trick you," his pug faced partner snapped, pulling up the gun, which caused the twins to hid behind the blond man.

"Now, now. Just hold on there," Tylor drawled as he stepped in between the two terrorists, before turning to look at the twins. "I mean, if you have to be killed, wouldn't you prefer the handsome one to do it?"

"You got that right," Emi stated.

Yumi twisted around to look at the face of the terrorist that she was hiding behind. "I want this one to kill me too."

"Oh, dear," groaned the blond hostage taker.

"We could forgive anything that a beautiful person would do. If we could be strangled by your long and graceful fingers, we could die happy."

Growing progressively more frustrated with every word spoken, the other terrorist snapped his gun to a ready position. "Alright then. If you want to die so badly, I'll oblige you."

"You be quiet," Emi shot back.

Her sister pinned him with a stern look. "If you're naughty, you won't get fed."

"'Get fed'?"

"Who do you think you are anyway? A man's looks are everything. Do you even think that you have any looks? Ugly men don't exist in this world. Even if they do, they're not men. They're less than human."

As Yuriko stared in confusion at the scene, Tylor stepped up, waggling a finger. "Girls, please stop criticizing. At least explain how he's short and bow legged. And all the other details that make him so very ugly."

"But still," Yumi began.

Emi drew herself up. "A man's face is most important."

"Right?" the twins chorused as the object of their discussion let his features slump.

* * *

The cup of tea in front of her was fragrant and steam was wafting from it, but Cologne hadn't drunk from it yet. That wasn't to say that she was planning on doing something like using it for divining, or something like that. She just had a lot on her mind, and knew that it couldn't be ignored forever.

Her people had already tried that already, and look what it had gotten them. After so many generations, the outside world had intruded onto the isolated lands of the Amazons, and they hadn't been able to keep up. Such a thing had long been a possibility, but it hadn't been seen as an immediate concern. In their thinking, there hadn't been any signs of an upcoming intrusion, so there hadn't been a need for scouting sooner than later. Besides, they'd already had what they'd needed, and so what limited contact they did have had sufficed.

And now they had all learned that such danger could come on a moment's notice. Even if it hadn't come in three thousand years of their people's history, that didn't mean that it couldn't come. Rather, it just meant that there hadn't been a reason to do so before. Now, they had been attacked by some sort of raiders, and had to depend on Outsider assistance to save their people.

Certainly by the show of ability that the outsiders had given, it was clear that they'd advanced more than she'd have thought possible. Why, it had not only been a mere three individuals that had done the deed, but two of them were merely teenagers. That spoke of powers and abilities that would be very interesting to see. Besides, if they had managed to advance to this level, who knew what else they could have to be seen. Taking a sip from her cup, the Amazon elder wondered what benefits that they might have for their people.

Perhaps they would even have new strains of tea leaves for her to try out.

* * *

A crack in the mirror didn't detract from the ability to see the make up adorned face of the blond terrorist.

"I knew that it'd look good!" declared one of the twins.

He glanced towards his side. "I see."

"The more polished you are, the more manly you look."

"I truly appreciate the power of cosmetics."

"A man isn't his face. A man is his heart," insisted the other terrorist. "His soul. His guts. His passions!"

Just then, the terrorists' equipment started beeping, and everyone looked over to see... the signal that there was a missile lock.

"They're what? They wouldn't. We're still in here!" Yuriko blurted.

"Well, looks like they've abandoned you," the pug faced terrorist said.

Tylor's expression was one of passive acceptance. "Looks like they have."

"Look, if you don't do something, we'll all be killed," Yuriko bit out at the hostage takers. "Or do you want to die here?"

"She's right. Everyone has a right to live, no matter how they look."

"You little... Are you still talking nonsense?" the bulky terrorist ground out.

"A man is his heart, his soul, his guts, his passion. Right?"

"It's too late to try flattering me."

"Oh, no, I mean it. Come on now, a man without feelings couldn't have made that big speech before," Tylor intoned. "A person must have a pure heart above all else. A pure heart, that's human love. But no one understands your pure heart, do they? They're much too distracted by your looks. They don't see the real you behind that horrible face."

"You're right. Nobody understands me."

"No, we don't have time for this. If we don't get out of here, we'll all..." Yuriko began.

"No, that won't be necessary," the bulky man interrupted, picking up the bomb and pressing a button on its side.

"Wait. Are you crying?"

"I guess he does have a pure heart after all," Tylor put in.

"I'm not sad really. I'm just moved to tears. The tears of a man," the pug faced terrorist managed to get out. "Today, for the first time in my life, I've truly met someone who understands my heart."

The lieutenant commander looked hopefully towards him. "So... You're going to put away the bomb and let us go."

"No, I'll never be moved like this again. I'll never receive such understanding from another man. So, let's all die together. Please die with me. We, the abandoned, will die by this bomb."

"Well... if you say so," Tylor stammered, and turned to the other serving military person in the room. "I think I blew it, Yuriko."

"Don't talk like we're friends. Everything went from bad to worse when you showed up," Yuriko ground out. "'Oh, I just came to deliver the check.' 'Just leave everything to me', huh? There's... there's still so much that I want to do. Why do I have to die like this. Give me back my life!"

"Well, I'm sorry, I can't give you back your life. But I can let you hit me. Here use this."

"Are you sure? I can really hit you?" Yuriko asked, grasping the handle of the briefcase that he'd given her.

"Go on. I don't mind."

"I'll hit you really, really hard."

"That's fine."

"Here it comes," the young officer called out as she swung the briefcase around... only to have Tylor duck, with the strike hitting the pug faced man instead, sending the bomb flying out the window.

As those in the apartment watched, there was a blast of heat and light coming from far below their floor.

"Damn it! Can't I be allowed to die?" whined the bulky man.

"You shouldn't want to," Tylor replied. "If you keep on living, good things may happen to you. Who knows? You make become a movie star one day. Think of how boring the world would be if everyone was handsome. Maybe some day women will come to like your kind of face. Better to have what you have than a pretty face and an ugly heart, right."

At that moment, the big man screamed incoherently, and then ran out the same window that bomb had gone through.

* * *

"Let me get this straight, you want to come with us?" Melissa muttered as she looked at the aged woman in front of her.

Cologne looked up from where she was standing on her staff and raised a brow. "I wouldn't have thought it to be that complicated of an idea.

"Well, of course it's not. My problem is that this isn't just some sort of field trip. We aren't looking to make up a tour group."

"Understandable. But you would certainly get something out of it."

"Like what?" the military woman demanded.

"Local guides, for one."

"True enough."

"Besides, my great granddaughter wants to go. She feels that she owes those two a life debt for rescuing her, and the others." The Amazon elder gave a wry smile. "And I can't let her go unescorted for too long."

"There is that."

"On top of that, we can help with the learning of the Art, child. We might have been caught blind by those raiders, but we do have some tricks up our sleeves.

Mao thought about it for a long moment, and had to admit that having more combat training to fall back on might not be such a bad idea.

* * *

Wincing as the injuries from having a bomb blow up above him were wrapped, Lieutenant Yamamoto scowled as he took in the scene around him. Buildings and military vehicles were ruined, men were sporting varied sorts of injuries, and they hadn't managed to actually get the job done on top of everything else.

And now a dark colored sedan was pulling up along with a familiar looking truck.

Out came four people, each wearing plain clothes, but standing out because of that. It was clear that this was the place that they were expecting to be. The thing was that it was also clear that it was also not in the condition that they expected it to be in.

"Agent Gibbs, NCIS," a man with short white gray hair commented, flashing his badge. "My team. Agents Dinozzo, McGee, and David. You're Lieutenant Yamamoto, I take it."

"Yes, sir," Yamamoto answered.

"That's good. We're going to have plenty of questions."

"Starting with one in particular," Dinozzo drawled, raising one brow as he did so.

"Really?" the Naval officer asked. "What would that be?"

Gibbs leaned right in and gave the officer a flat glare. "How did you let it become like this, Lieutenant?"

Yamamoto swallowed hard, and tried to figure out how to explain the situation.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:_  
According to two posters over on the Anime Addventure (Mouse and Char) - David Weber disapproves of use of his characters/settings. Due to that, Honor Harrington was removed as Captain of the Iowa and will not be appearing in this story hereafter.

If any author goes out to say "don't use my characters/setting" - i will remove them where possible or discontinue the story if the character is so central that i can't simply remove them. i count on you, gentle reader, to dispute it if someone makes false claims on that regard as i am just writing in the odd open moment and not doing this professionally. 


	38. Chapter 38: Alternate Views

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything. Don't have money. Just written to hone skills and amuse readers. Originally written by myself and Kender_Sci over at the Anime Addventure.

Chapter 38: Alternate Views

* * *

Jupiter's Jaffa was one term used for them.

"Are you sure that you understood that this is what she wanted?" asked one of the biker-clad Jaffa.

"Apparently," said their leader. "She felt that we could be of great use in helping to defend these Tau'ri in their station."

"So what are we calling ourselves this week?" asked a third.

"Everytime we come across a decent set of names, someone comes up with this whole 'lawsuit' thing," said their leader. "The Boss uses a secret identity and her goddess identity. Maybe we ought to just go with something on that level."

"Whatever," said a fourth. "I think we ought to just get space fighters and do a patrol. This tel'tac looks shabby compared to some of the Tau'ri fighters."

"Now that we can agree on," said the leader. "Or at least some weapons."

The radio installed on their vehicle crackled. "Are you guys done with your break yet? We've got more loads piling up for you to shuttle."

* * *

Haruka Ten'ou and Michiru Kaioh being together was a perfectly normal thing.

"Ah, welcome, your table is this way," said the yoma.

"Ah, yes, right," said Haruka.

While following the yoma, she could tell easily that this WAS a yoma. The claws, the ears, the tail, the little pieces of exoskeleton. The modified (for a tail) blue Chinese-style dress merely made the yoma a little less risque.

"You're a... scorpion yoma, right?" asked Michiru.

"Yes, ma'am," said the yoma. "Here we are. Do you want to see a menu now?"

"We're here to see Mister Nephrite, actually," said Michiru.

"Yes, ma'am," said the yoma-scorpion girl. "Perhaps something from the drink menu?"

"Scorpia, if you'll bring three teas. Mint I think."

"Sir," said the scorpion-yoma as she bowed and left.

"Nephrite," said Haruka, warily eyeing the Dark General. "Or should I say 'Masato Sanjouin'?"

"Nephrite is my real name, and I've used it as a 'stage name' here," said the Dark General, taking a seat opposite the two Senshi. "The show begins in an hour, until then we can discuss matters."

* * *

"Robot dogs don't have any rights," said the fellow.

"I disagree," protested the dog.

"Look, you gots to obey me cause I'm a human and you gots to do it, I think there's a law there," said the rough-looking one.

"Three Laws Of Robotics," said the nerd-looking one. "Let's just open you up and see what's in there."

"I really must protest such treatment," said the dog. "I am a machine, yes - but a sentient one. You stole me away from my assigned post. I have now registered thirteen disagreements with your planned course of action."

"We've got you completely contained, and once I find out how to best deactivate you, I'll dissect you for your secrets," said the nerd. "It is the purpose of machines to serve man."

"That is unacceptable," said the dog. "Fourteen. I insist that you return me to my proper place, and cease and desist these efforts."

"Oh, and what can you do about it?" asked the nerd. "We're blocked from radio signals here."

"When you transferred me from your van to this warehouse, there was a twenty second window of opportunity for me to short-burst my GPS position to the relevant authorities," pointed out the robot dog.

"Entirely too short a time," protested the nerd.

"Nineteen seconds more time than was actually needed," responded the dog.

"Well, nobody will get here before we've disassembled you and can move to another location," said the nerd, mainly for the benefit of the now-nervous looking thug.

"If you insist," said the dog, sounding very regretful. "Shutting down."

"Well, that's more like it," said the thug.

"I told you, they can't disobey a direct order from a human being," said the nerd.

"Ten seconds. Correction," said the robot dog. "I am not a human-built robot required to follow any regional laws or orders save those I choose to obey."

"So?" asked the thug.

"No other lifeforms within blast radius," said the robot dog.

"What?" asked the nerd, suddenly putting that together.

* * *

Cologne watched the two children at the campsite, gathering information.

The boy and girl were formidable. When the girl's cheerleader costume shifted to normal clothing, she seemed to lose a good deal of her speed and poise. The boy, on the other hand, did not seem to shift at all as far as his physical capabilities.

The adult with them was below the standard held for the tribe's warriors. Not unskilled in the fighting arts, but not nearly at the level to provide any sort of challenge to one of those warriors of the Amazon tribe.

Then she saw Shampoo striding over to the boy and experienced one of those "oh crap" moments.

* * *

The purple haired girl had noticed him going through some quick stances and had come up and spoke something before going into a combat stance in front of him.

"You're challenging me to a fight?" asked Ranma.

Shampoo said something else rapidly, her combat stance changing only slightly.

"So... sparring?" asked Ranma, still trying to make sense of this. It wasn't like he understood much Chinese. Heck, Mao understood this Mandarin stuff but was still having trouble with this local dialect.

The old woman said something, followed by the purple-haired girl saying something back. Sounded like argument.

Mao listened for a minute, then spoke to Ranma. "Do NOT fight her. Sounds like some sort of local custom. Cologne doesn't want her to fight you, she wants to fight you. Something about... fish?"

* * *

Mousse was worried.

Of course, there had been plenty to be worried about, given that the village had been attacked by strange men bearing lightning throwing staffs. Not only had the danger been great, but the girl of his dreams had been captured. All through the incident, he'd been trying to figure out ways to go and help her... only to have her, and the entire village, saved by outsiders.

Well, that was all well and good, but he wasn't about to let his guard down. It'd already been proven that there was a major danger out there, and he didn't want her to be taken away from him again. Danger was still quite possible, and it was up to him to protect her from all possible threats.

The Amazon boy had to hover around her just to be sure that nothing untoward would happen. What he'd have liked to do would be to stay at her side, but her last response to his overtures had been... less than pleased. Of course, he understood why she'd put down his desire to guard her since he hadn't been all that effective against those invaders. But how was he supposed to be ready for those devils?

So, he stayed to the edges of her presence, ready to be her protector as best he could. This would allow him to jump in when needed, but would also keep him out of the range of her ire. Eventually, she would tire of her disgust, and would let him get closer. He would just have to wait for that reprieve until then. For the time being, he would just have to stay near where he could see if there were any possible issues that he would have to face.

And now it seemed that there were most certainly going to be. As he skulked around the crowds, he tried to listen in as to what was going on. His hearing was better than some, but he heard something about Elder Cologne letting her great-granddaughter go outside of the Village. That had worried him enough to seek her out, and when he'd seen her, she had been challenging the strange boy who'd fought those enemies from earlier. Something unreasonable was happening, and he knew what could result from such a bout.

Such a thing could not be allowed, and he wasn't about to stand by for it.

Squinting heavily at the open space, he tried to see where she was, and found that he couldn't quite tell with all those milling around the area. There _were_ several likely candidates, and since they were near where she'd been, that was where he'd probably find her. It was still a matter of elimination then, but since the slender figure didn't seem to have the right sort of shape, she was out. That meant that it was likely that the other one was his beloved, and he decided to take her out of there before something untoward happened.

With a flick of his wrist, he sent his chains out towards his target, silently mocking those who thought that he was too blind to hit anything. Instead, his weapons wrapped around a certainly feminine body, and pulled her off her feet, and towards him. There wasn't even a need to confirm his success, as his capture yelled out in surprise, and even barked several words in Mandarin.

"Do not think of trying anything funny, outsider!" Mousse declared. "Shampoo is MINE!"

"You want to wash your hair?" the pigtailed boy asked.

"No. Why would I want that?"

"Because you asked for shampoo."

"Yes, because she is mine."

The outsider boy's brows drew together. "Try making sense."

"Are you that silly? This girl is mine! We are meant to be together!"

"First love, huh?"

Mousse just blinked at him. "Huh?"

Raising one hand, the other boy pointed at the person that had been caught.

A bit confused at the odd behavior of the others, Mousse turned his head around to look at the female in his chains. "What? It's supposed to be my beloved."

"Don't think so," commented a young woman... whose short hair and obvious worldly experience did not come from his dear Shampoo. "You are way too young to even have a chance."

"Eh? How'd you get there?"

"You did this to me. What you were trying there?"

"I was going after Shampoo. The other girl there didn't have her womanly curves, so..."

A few of the Amazons backed away from the younger outsider girl as she heard that, but even as a violet glow shone around her, they couldn't quite blame her.

All through this, Mousse was trying to figure out how things had gone askew.

* * *

Cologne wasn't a Loremaster by any stretch of the imagination. She was a martial artist of the Village of Warrior Women, Nichieju, and not someone who particularly was inclined to spend huge sums of time in musty libraries. Not to say that she hadn't picked up quite a few things, in her philosophy there was a great deal of information that could be used sooner or later.

So when she felt the stirrings from both this 'Ranma' and 'Hotaru' she did the sensible thing any prudent warrior would do. Which was to move OUT of the line of fire.

"(Are you stupid Mousse! How could you mistake her for me! Waitaminute, you mistake a cow for me, so at least you're doing a LITTLE better!)" Shampoo, of course, used the Nichieju/Jusenkyo area dialect, which was NOT the same as Mandarin as it was spoken in Shanghai.

"What was that?" asked Melissa Mao, still wrapped in chains. "Did she just call me a cow?" Melissa, of course, was Chinese-American by heritage. She spoke Mandarin as it was generally spoken within New York City's Chinatown area as well as Hong Kong, and a smattering of Cantonese.

"(Shampoo,)" called out Cologne. "(If you don't want to make matters worse, sit down, shut up, stay out of the way.)"

Mousse, because some of his weapon training had been with Japanese weapons, HAD learned enough of the language to get by and with some work could become thoroughly proficient in it. Unfortunately, because he was talking to Shampoo, he lapsed into Nichieju dialect. "(Shampoo! My love! I'm here to rescue you!)"

"(Who the bloody blue hell said I needed rescuing, moron!)" was Shampoo's purely emotional response to Mousse's attempted gallantry.

"(But I heard there was a challenge!)" protested Mousse.

"(I want to see how strong they are! Does it really sound that outlandish?)" retorted Shampoo.

"(If you two want to have a lover's quarrel,)" growled Melissa, trying to get the chain around her neck looser, "(can you kindly do it WITHOUT me being in the middle of it?)"

"You might want to let her go," said Ranma, a bit bemused that he was being the voice of reason and moderation and diplomacy here. That was hardly his usual role.

Cologne noticed. "You didn't strike me as a diplomat."

"Well, at least he didn't attack Hotaru," said Ranma. "That woulda made it personal."

"Hah!" said Mousse. "I can see much better than that."

Cologne groaned and closed her eyes. "Please. Stop it at that."

"I could see at least that that girl there lacks any feminine curves and is a mere child," said Mousse. "Unlike you, I am not a pedophile."

Ranma lost his smile.

Hotaru looked stricken, smoothing out her qipao and wondering if she could really be mistaken for a child in it.

"(Hey! Chain!)" protested Mao as the chain against her throat went tighter.

Ranma frowned and then blurred.

* * *

Cologne leaned forward, watching eagerly. To her daughter or Mousse, much less the non-martial artist in the chains, Ranma would be a blur. Not so to her, his speed was very good though. That wasn't the surprising part. The part that brought an interested gleam to her eyes was the way he pulled out and shaped some odd energy. Not chi, though there was chi manifesting as he did it. Something else though, and it sliced through the chains as if there was no resistance to be found. Then the boy leapt away before the chains could really begin to fall.

Speed, precision, and definitely some power. She'd suspected as much, and was glad enough to see those suspicions confirmed.

There was room for improvement though.

* * *

[System Bootup Complete]

[Intruder Alert]

[Scanning]

[Time Elapsed Since Last Activation: 24,321 standard years]

[Cancel Intruder Alert. Cancel Anti-Intruder Protocols.]

[Interrogative: What the hell?]

[Standard Protocol: None. This situation was not foreseen by event planners.]

[Repairs being enacted by intruders. Probable motivation: salvage.]

[Analyzing Intruders.]

[Intruders are upright bipeds with grasping forelimbs. Mammal derivative probable.]

[Most logical course of action: Observe intruders and determine future plans.]

"Or you could just ASK us, since we have a database on your language."

[Biped at main computer console has a small device which translates 'unknown species' language to that of Builders. Exclamation: Oh dear. There goes the plan for remaining unknown and in the background.]

"Just for the records. We're human, and I am Soichiro Tomoe."

[Species name now recorded as 'human' type. Intention?]

"We're rebuilding your ship. Unless you have a particular objection, we're naming you the 'Soyokaze' and you're going to be one of the ships guarding a planet called Earth from alien parasites."

[Query: I get repaired and maintained for this service?]

"Yes, that IS the idea."

[Statement: Acceptable. Duty falls within set purpose.]

"Nice to see further evidence that alien war machines can be reasonable."

[Additional query.]

"Go ahead."

[Do you have any idea why this unit was deactivated?]

"Yes. I have files on everything we've found at this point."

[That would be appreciated.]

* * *

In her time, Cologne had seen many things and knew plenty of secrets. It came with the territory of her position and experience. But in watching that youngster take action, she knew that this was something to take rather seriously.

Unfortunately for him, Mousse didn't know enough to know that he was severely outclassed. "Trying to show off, are you? Well, you can't scare me. I am going to protect Shampoo!"

"(Idiot!)" the girl in question snapped. "(Who asked you to step in?)"

"(Didn't have to be asked. It's what I _want_ to do.)"

"(So go do it on your own time, moron!)"

"(I won't delay in your defense.) I shall challenge you to a fight so that you'll take your child bride and leave my beloved alone!"

As she saw the furrow in their male visitor's brow deepen, Cologne knew that the best thing to do would be to let him be. Near as she could tell, he hadn't come with the intent to cause them harm. Of course, even if he had been planning on causing destruction, it wouldn't be all that welcome to antagonize that boy. Why, just in trying to protect the village, they would have been liable to destroy a good chunk of it, if not most.

No, it was better to keep out of the way, which was proven as she saw footprints in the path that a normal warrior would have had to work to create. The pigtailed boy had done them just by taking a step, and hadn't even paid mind to them. When his first strike hit, it sent the nearly blind fool flying so fast backwards that his feet didn't have the time to leave the ground.

However, it did give enough time to let the older female of the outsider group a chance to walk towards her. Other than the fact that she was being held as being appealing by the way that several males stared at the way that she rubbed her sore behind as she walked, she didn't seem all that troubled. Instead, she seemed... annoyed by the whole escapade, and was grumbling under her breath about something.

"I do hope that you are quite alright, child," Cologne murmured as the young woman came near.

"I won't say that it has been fun at all," her visitor commented. "Whole thing is embarrassing."

"Understandable. But I hope that you won't hold it against us."

"Not unless the rest of those guys are as stupid as that one," the other woman replied.

"He's... different, my dear."

"Really? Thought that all guys were addled on some level or another."

"Perhaps," the Amazon Elder allowed, and then sighed. "Unfortunately, this one has been after my great granddaughter for some time now."

"He's hunting her?"

"In a manner of speaking. Mousse wishes to be a... suitor for her."

"What does that... Oh hell. Am I going to have to get Ranma to stop?" Mao asked.

"Hmm? Why?"

"You said that the jerk is trying to date your great granddaughter."

"Yes, but I never said that _she_ would want him. I am more enjoying what your young companion is doing to him," Cologne admitted.

Mao turned to look and saw that Mousse had been knocked into the air, but was not really managing to get back to the surface. Somehow, he was floating there, even though he wasn't exactly trying to do much of anything. However it became clear as to what was going if one could see how Ranma was speeding around him. Still, one could spot the jerking that he had as the pigtailed teenager hit him faster than even gravity could even keep up with.

"Okay then," Mao drawled as she started to look around. "Going to need my radio."

"Something important?" Cologne asked.

"You might say that. I have to set up for a pickup by a transport."

"Then you are leaving."

"Yeah, but trying to get all of us out at once will be a hassle. On the other hand, multiple rides would mean more of a chance of getting spotted," the sergeant major commented.

"It would be easy for the three of you, which means..." Cologne began, and then started to smile. "You want to take us with you."

"It seems for the best. You people had to deal with the Goa'uld, and your homes were kind of... damaged, so we have to do _something_. Besides, having a Chinese presence with us could do a lot to make the government here feel a little better."

"I only feel it proper to let you know that we aren't exactly the most... involved or connected group to those... officials.

"That's just a bonus," Mao with a smile.

Cologne thought about it for a moment, and seemed to be about to speak. But then she started to return the expression with a grin of her own.

* * *

"There's our ride, I take it?" asked Cologne as she looked upward.

"Yeah, it's called a tel'tac," said Mao, glancing to the side. "Is it okay to leave him like that?"

"Oh, he'll be fine," said Cologne dismissively. "As that appears to be a spaceship, and as Mousse has a tendency to throw sharp objects with poor aim - do you really want to try taking him along?"

"Good point," agreed Mao as the ship lowered itself to the ground.

"I thought so," said Cologne agreeably.

"Now this is a group of Jaffa-" began Mao.

"'Jaffa'?" repeated Shampoo, going on guard.

"See, some Jaffa have apparently got this thing where if you demonstrate sufficient strength," said Mao, "they'll swear loyalty to you - especially if their last boss did anything that seems weak or betraying them."

"Ah, we have... some traditions which are similar in some ways," said Cologne, who then gave some very quick Mandarin to Shampoo - who still looked quite dubious about it all.

"She can stay with her boyfriend if she wants," said Mao.

Oddly enough, despite that not being translated, Shampoo was the first through the doors once they opened.

* * *

Mousse woke up when a breeze blew his hair back, and opened his eyes despite a distinct feeling of extreme achiness.

He saw the large machine lifting up into the air and then noted the distinct lack of Shampoo.

"How dare you kidnap my Shampoo!" Mousse declared as soon as he concluded the obvious. Well, obvious to him at least. "You won't get away!"

Chains went out, one hook snagging on a section that had taken some damage recently and wasn't smooth.

"HAH!" said Mousse, bracing himself and still a bit rattled from being treated like a hackysack not to mention that he was still not wearing his glasses. Otherwise there was absolutely no way he would have done what he'd just done. "Now I've got !"

Still hanging on, though now for dear life, Mousse fumbled around with his other hand to try and pull his glasses out. As the acceleration continued to increase, he gave off that effort and simply held on with both hands. He realized what he was doing soon enough, and simply let go rather than be dragged along at high speeds. He'd have to track Shampoo by other means that didn't involve extremely high altitudes and speeds.

Which was when he angled for one of those pools of water down there.

* * *

Jack O'Neill looked up and focussed on a section of wall near the ceiling.

"Something wrong, sir?" asked Samantha Carter.

"I just got this feeling that I somehow dodged some bullet of some kind," said Jack thoughtfully.

"Well, that's good, I suppose," said Carter less certainly.

* * *

Time passed.

Some of the panic died down. The Stargate remained secret, but now there were ways off planet Earth.

There were some, of course, who protested that space should remain inviolate. That alien technology needed to be checked for environmental effects before it could be used. That environmental impact studies should be taken out before space colonization efforts could be put underway.

Then there was everyone else.

* * *

Walking down the corridor, Bastet made sure that she did so with a strut that allowed her hips to wriggle quite appealingly. With those watching her as she passed by, she wanted to make certain that she looked good for them. She knew that the body that she wore was of an attractive woman, so she made sure that the breasts were held out to bounce with each step, and that a small and secretive smile on her lips. That was what they would see, and it would keep them from remembering that she really was a parasitic eel that had hijacked control of this body. So, she was certainly going to make sure that they thought of her as she appeared to be, especially considering what she was trying to do.

Not that the men that she was seeing appeared to be all that excellent in the realm of choices. Oh, many of them were handsome enough, and being in the military had given them buff forms. The thing was though that she had to wonder if she was going to get some who bore some sort of special ability. Perhaps they would be a good distraction, but when she got some _real_ men, then they would be able to give the power that she sought.

Until then, she'd have to play the 'willing consort', even to this Colonel Samuels. "Why, hello there, Colonel."

"Hello, Bastet," Samuels replied. "Enjoying our hospitality?"

"I will say that you have been more... welcoming than my fellow System Lords would be."

"Well, that is good. I would like you to meet someone who will be working with me. This is Colonel Jessep."

"Oh, hello Colonel Jessep."

"Hello, miss," the other man responded with a wry tone to his voice. "I look forward to making sure that everything is secure around you."

There was certainly a subtle poke in his words, but Bastet merely let it slide, and put a companionable smile on her lips.

* * *

"Can someone tell me why it is that we have to be here?" Jack O'Neill asked as he looked around the Gate Room.

"This is an unusual event, sir," Carter murmured back to him. "The Tok'ra haven't been all that regular with their communications with us."

"And now they rang us up out of the blue."

"Yes, and they've asked for a face to face meeting."

The flash of the activating wormhole illuminated the colonel's face as he spoke. "The question is what made them want to come visit."

"Well, maybe now we'll find out," Daniel suggested.

They all watched as several figures stepped through the wormhole, each in the typical clothing of the Tok'ra. More than one gun was trained on them, but it was clear that they were not going to be fired. Instead, the figures walked down the ramp, and came over to the SG-1 team.

"Good of you guys to come," Jack greeted them. "Wanting to come and have a chat?"

"If it was only that simple. We fear that a Goa'uld is hidden on your world," one of the Tok'ra answered.

"Are you talking about Bastet? We've been keeping an eye on that one."

"No. If we are correct, this one has been on your world for many centuries."

The team glanced over at each other at that statement.

* * *

Seth sat in his little compound in the state known as Washington, having recently moved there, and considered things as they were.

He was not stupid. He might be as prideful and confident as any Goa'uld, but he knew that there were devices out there which would pick up on the presence of certain materials in this body that would make it stand out. Automated routines might pick it up in an airport screening device and send it on to organizations who would identify him as a Goa'uld and come after him.

So, no airports. No seaports. In fact, ports of just about any kind were NOT someplace he would visit.

He had minions for that.

When a Goa'uld fleet had attacked the Earth, he'd been among many openly gaping at the sight. Not that he'd been like those who had scoffed at the pictures, rather he'd known exactly what he was looking at and what such ships were capable of.

When the humans had WON, well, that had been such a shock that his host body of that time had nearly had a heart attack.

There were many things about humans he found pathetic. They were often mired in idiocy. He could and did run into competent and intelligent humans, but the larger the number - the more their collective intelligence and competency seemed to fall apart. It was rather like that law about ninja he'd run across once, one human by themselves could be competent while a large group was simply cattle to be slaughtered. That might not be the exact quote but it was something like that at any rate.

Before that event, he'd largely ignored television. Now he carefully went over the schedule and saw what was available before deciding whether or not to ignore it. The humans had developed or attained stardrive, and though they were very limited in numbers - there was a chance he could get OFF this rock at long last.

Oh yes, he was more than ready to return to space. There were bases and hidden caches of equipment hidden away out there. Any Goa'uld started their life snapping up resources and no matter how confident they were in their power - there would be a hole to bolt to - just for peace of mind if nothing else.

Seth himself had seven, though after the thousands of years of exile on this dirtball - he wasn't sure how many remained unfound and unplundered.

Still, that brought him back to the new security measures - which would pick up on him if he did too much. No, he pretty much had to rely on minions. Which meant that he had to move really darn cautiously and have minions that could operate at a distance from him. Which meant he couldn't use any of the sex slaves he'd been using for a long period of time.

There was also the danger of even trying. The closer he got to such facilities, the more danger of his being discovered. Here in this backwater he was anonymous, just another little wealthy recluse. Closer, and he'd be scrutinized all the more often.

Finally he saw a commercial for those recruiting for the local military and began working out a plan.

* * *

Samantha Carter smiled as she led her father down the corridor, almost clearing a path for him as they went. There was a bounce in her step, and she kept on looking over at him. A few times, she almost even bumped into airmen and marines who were going about their regular business. But she didn't show any embarrassment as they continued on their way.

It took a knowing look from her father before she flushed just a bit.

"You know, it's great to see you again, Dad," she murmured as they rounded a corner.

"Well, it's the same for me, Sam," Jacob Carter drawled. "Being on assignment would have been bad enough, but this..."

"No one said being with the Tok'ra would be easy."

"True, but it isn't the worst thing in the world."

"I suppose..." she allowed.

"I sense a 'but' in there."

"Well, I wasn't exactly... bonded for that long, so I don't know as much about it as you would. So, making a judgement call on so little experience would be... silly."

Her father gave a small nod. "Kind of makes me wish that some of politicians I had to deal with in my day had your sort of wisdom."

"Trust me. They haven't changed."

"One of the constants in the universe."

"That sounds like Jack, Dad," Sam shot back.

"I knew that there was a reason that I liked him."

She rolled her eyes. "Wonderful. A 'boys club'."

"Hey, you are a member too," Jacob commented, gently poking her in the side. "Can't have too many recruits."

"Yes, but it can be hard. Take how it is in finding people for the Tok'ra."

"Oh?"

"It isn't that we aren't trying. The problem is finding people able to cope with sharing their bodies, but who are stable enough to not make life troublesome for us both."

"Trust me. The Tok'ra would prefer to keep the crazies out of their ranks too."

"Understandable. But why are you here, Dad?"

"Excuse me?" he grunted, his eyes widening just a bit.

"Well, you seem to be doing well, and this sort of wild goose chase isn't your kind of mission. What, did you come all the way back just to visit me?"

"That's it exactly. I came to see you."

"Really?" his daughter muttered, giving him a level look.

"Why not? Can't I just decide to come and visit my daughter?"

"When you could have just stopped by on your own and not had to volunteer for the mission?"

Jacob looked like he was going to say something, but then he stopped. His head hung for a moment, and as it raised, his eyes flashed with a familiar inborn light. And when he spoke, it was in a different tone all together. "It was I who requested this assignment."

"Selmak."

"Yes. I must apologize, Captain Carter, for this... intrusion into your life. But unfortunately, there are issues that your father are allowing to fester, and they are getting in the way of things."

"Which would be..."

"He is still troubled by that which has been left unresolved with his son."

There was a shiver and a blink from Jacob before he began to scowl. "I don't have any problem at all. I don't even have a son."

"Come on, Dad," Sam protested. "Isn't that a little harsh?"

"He didn't even show up at my deathbed, so you can understand why I'm not going to waste a moment on him. Has he even contacted you?"

"Not really. I think that he tars us with the same brush."

"Exactly," he bit out.

"Still, if you want, I think that I have his number. Shouldn't be too hard to let him know what's been going on."

"Be nice if he asked."

"He could take it better now that it's all out there now. I mean, it'll be hard to dismiss the truth when we just saved the planet from an invasion."

Crossing his arms and snorting said what Jacob Carter thought the likelihood of that would be.

* * *

Airman Lisle had only glanced at the monitor feed from the cameras before she nearly dropped the coffee mug that she had been about to drink from. A loud groan escaped from her lips as she stared at the image, almost willing it to go away. However, it clearly stayed there, and she got to wondering why the kooks could never manage to actually show some skill in what they would try to do.

"Maybe they wouldn't be nut jobs if they knew what they were doing," she muttered.

"Something the matter, Airman?" asked Staff Sergeant Dixon as he leaned in towards her desk.

"Technically, yes, sir," she admitted as she waved a hand at her monitor. "We've got someone trying for a clearly unauthorized entry onto the facilities, but..."

"He's clearly a moron."

"Pretty much. I mean, I know that we're working more with the other nations, but they don't just stroll onto bases like they've been passing by."

"More than that," the sergeant put in.

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"My grandfather was a pilot in China during the Depression. His stories made me want to join the Air Force. Now, I might not be flying, but I do know my history."

"And..." she began.

"That's an old Kuomintang uniform. Taiwan hasn't used those things for ages. Hell, the only reason that I even know what they look like so easily is that I can remember them from the old man's pictures of the 'Flying Tigers'."

"So, we're talking..."

"At least as old as World War II."

Lisle snorted at the though and idly considered passing it off to someone else.

For his part, Mousse trundled on, certain that the fact that the uniform that he was wearing was from an allied army would at least get him through the gates.


	39. Chapter 39: Travel

No Tendo: A Fusion Tale  
by Greylle (Kestral) and Kender_Sci

DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything. Don't have money. Just written to hone skills and amuse readers. Originally written by myself and Kender_Sci over at the Anime Addventure.

Chapter 39: Travel

Lieutenant Hodges tried to focus on the task at hand and NOT dwell on where he was. "Anchors deployed. System reads green."

"Roger, Bogey Two. Clear to three thousand."

"Roger, _Hood_," said Hodges, triggering the chemical manuevering jets. He watched the distance-to-target slowly tick away.

"Bogey Two, clear to return."

"Roger, _Hood_ - though I thought since I was here I might as well see if it opens. Save a trip if it doesn't."

"Bogey Two, roger. Remote activating."

That this was cool, well that was besides the point, right?

A thin mylar sheet was extended, something cobbled together by the British because NASA had decided that in order to perform this - they needed about 17 million more dollars and a five year study. So the mix of tape, mylar sheeting, and a few motors linked to a solar battery were not nearly as efficient as what would come down the road.

It was available now however.

"Positioning check aye. Sail deployed. Transponder activated."

Hodges clicked his radio. "Roger, _Hood_. Returning to base."

It was hard to believe that something that small could shift the course of an asteroid, but maybe the brain trust had a clue after all. Well, at least the transponder would allow for faster tracking of it.

* * *

_Bismark Base:_  
"Minako Aino, repotting for duty!"

"That's 'reporting for duty', Miss Aino."

"Right, that's what I meant," agreed the blonde in the flight uniform.

The flight officer looked over the girl briefly. "Aren't you a little young..."

"You really don't know?" asked Minako, blinking at the older man.

"You've got to be all of what? 14?" asked the flight officer.

"Captain..." Minako peered closer at the man's ID. "Captain DuBois? You're not the usual officer in charge here, are you?"

"No, I'm filling in for Major Crowley," said Captain DuBois. "That doesn't get around you being severely underage for service much less piloting... this is a joke right? A modified A-10? In SPACE?"

Minako just went for the friendly approach, it was just part of being her after all. "It's my plane. I just need to report to the flight officer and file my mission plan."

"This is STILL highly irregular," said the flight officer, taking the offered papers and quickly looking them over.

"We're going to be going to those electronic clipboards soon," said Minako, trying for small talk. "Like in the original Star Trek series. That's cause of paper dust and the cost of transporting paper and stuff like that."

"Yeah, so I hear," said the gray-haired officer, frowning at the papers in question. "Going to Io? You understand there's a no-fly zone... around an invisible castle... Man, I miss the days when my job made sense."

"There's a lot of that going around," noted Minako.

* * *

_Refuge:_  
"Oh, this is not a good way to wake up," groaned Shampoo.

"Well, it was this or take a month to travel in space," came her Great-Grandmother's voice. "Considering all the things that could go wrong..."

"Yes, Great Grandmother, I understand," said Shampoo, her voice a little testy. "Couldn't they have used something else to knock us out for the trip? My mouth is dry, my head weighs more than usual, and it feels like I slept on my arm."

Cologne shrugged. "I imagine that like our presence here, there was a series of compromises at higher political levels that caused some of the difficulties and nonsensical parts."

Shampoo took her time stretching out before exiting the small hut. "Not much of a living quarters."

"Bigger than an apartment in any of the large cities back on Earth," responded Cologne.

"Looks not that dissimilar to our home village," said Shampoo as she walked along one of the paths, looking over the village.

"Well, we'll see, won't we?" said Cologne as she cane-walked alongside her great-granddaughter.

* * *

Seth was frustrated by the lack of success. The two targets he'd chosen, either one would do, remained frustratingly out of reach.

He chose his agents carefully, but there was only so much he could do without getting involved himself. Going to the locations in questions though, that was a level of danger he wasn't ready to subject himself to. Right now, the authorities had no clue that there was a Goa'uld still on Earth - and if that ever changed he'd have to hide himself more thoroughly than he had in over a thousand years.

Fortunately, he had a backup plan.

* * *

"I'm still surprised that you were able to find him at all," Jacob said as he leaned back in his seat.

Daniel blinked slightly and looked up from his notebook to glance at the older man. "Ah, yes. Well, the thing is that I've always tried to find all the connections between things."

"Which has helped out a lot, I'd imagine."

"Not always. You wouldn't imagine how much a... hassle it becomes when you tell people that ancient Egypt was visited from space men."

"True enough," the former general admitted with a shrug. "Kind of different flying like this, isn't it?"

"What? Are we missing the chance to take a Gulfstream?" Jack drawled, smirking just a bit.

"Didn't take one of those. But this isn't the worst plane I've been on," the archeologist manage to murmur over the drone of the engines.

"How's that?"

"Not as much in the way of farm animals."

"At least, not yet. We haven't met the sheriff yet."

"I doubt that we're going to have to worry about that outside Seattle," Sam put in.

"You never know."

* * *

Training was something that Ranma tended to do on his own. For him, it was actually rather relaxing, as it spoke to the center of himself. That was something physical that he could use to work through any sort of stress that he'd get in the day. It also gave him the chance to focus his mind on something that he understood.

But as he went to grab a towel, he knew that there were things that he could not do with a mere training session. Wiping at his face, he began to work out what exactly he could do about it. Unfortunately, he couldn't come up with a clear plan.

As he looked around, he wondered where Hotaru had gone off to. Something seemed to be wrong with her, and had been ever since they had been to China. He wondered what it was that had bothered her, but she had seemed a little down from then. Well, at the very least, it hadn't made her embarrassed, though she was certainly depressed.

So far, she hadn't said anything, but he knew that she was uncertain. She had been rather quiet as of late, and even though she wasn't the most exuberant person he knew, that was a little odd. Every time that he had seen her though, she was apparently thinking, which could mean a lot. As it was, she didn't seem to be about talk to anyone about it.

Still, he didn't know how to make her how to perk up, and wondered what he could do for that.

* * *

"Well now, this looks very interesting," said Cologne, looking over the building.

"It's a monastery?" asked Shampoo making her way up the path behind her great-grandmother.

"It's the dojo, a safe house, and a home," said a voice.

"Who said that?" asked Shampoo.

"I did," said a large metal post, a panel sliding open to reveal a single green-glowing lens and a speaker. "Scan completed. Two Earth-normal humans, genetic scan reveals probably related."

"You're a security guard for this place? You speak Mandarin very well," commented Shampoo.

"Actually, no. I speak nine Earth-based languages, four dialects of the Goa'uld worlds, and six computer-based languages. I'm actually an ion cannon."

"You speak our language very well, though a bit stiffly, for a gun," commented Cologne. She gave them points though. If you were going to give intelligence to a weapon, you might as well make it a polite weapon.

"Is anyone at the dojo expecting you?" asked the ion cannon.

"No, we just arrived and are getting a feel for the place," said Cologne. "Naturally, having an interest in the martial arts, we were quite interested in seeing the dojo."

"Of course," agreed the ion cannon. "I have buzzed the office and they have confirmed you are allowed entry. Just stay clear of the landing pad. Tidus is expected to land there within the hour and he can be a little... rough on landings."

"We'll keep that in mind," said Cologne affably as she continued up the path.

* * *

"Are you sure this is the guy?" asked Jacob Carter.

"Reasonably," said Sam. "He moved recently. He was flagged at that point, as there were complaints about his cult prior to that but no hard evidence of any wrongdoing."

"Yeah, and now that the general public's heard about 'shapeshifting monsters from beyond time', they tend to flood local authorities with reports anytime their Aunt Betsy forgets her meds," quipped Jack.

"Well, yes sir, but all of those go into a computer and then only the ones with a dozen or so common hits get investigated," added Samantha Carter, rummaging in a pocket and pulling out a folded sheet of paper. "When one of the cult members left the compound, a federal agent with a medscanner checked her out. This was the result."

Jacob Carter looked at the paper, but it was Sel'mak who answered. "I see. A biological enslavement agent."

"Right," said Samantha Carter, inclining her head towards the current 'specialist' SG-1 would be working with. "That's why she's taking point this time."

KOS-MOS didn't blink as she met Jacob Carter's gaze.

"Even if you dress her up in civvies," said Jacob. "They're going to know something's off about her the moment they speak to her."

Doctor Janet Fraiser adjusted her kelweave vest and patted the medscanner she kept under a flap of the material. The little devices would be worth more than three of the cars heading for the little compound if it were on the open market, but it would be invaluable on this operation. "That's not a problem. We're only infiltrating so far as to try to keep hostages from being taken or similar situations. We've determined that a strong electrical charge will inactivate the agent. Probably a design feature."

* * *

"We need to turn our back on these new untested technologies. Let these aliens keep space while we address problems here on Earth!"

There were cheers from the audience to that, though the girl walked past the street-orator without a passing glance.

A radio was turned on, revealing another viewpoint from another speaker. "So we have nutcases saying we're not ready. Put the genie back in the bottle and bury it. Well, folks, sad to say - only one country ever managed to do that. That was Japan when they closed the borders, but they DID manage to go isolationist and turn their backs on most of the outside world. Not completely though, and it only worked as long as the outside world let it."

This time the woman glanced towards the group around the radio, but walked past them as well. Finally she reached an unremarkable looking door in the side of the Lincoln Memorial. A metal door with a sign that read simply "Restricted Access" on an equally simple plate. A small black panel set into the wall beeped when an ID card was pressed to it, and the door clicked to an unlocked position.

The woman entered, her black high heels clicking on the tiled floor as she entered the tiny room on the other side and let the door clang shut again and lock behind her.

She stood there, unmoving, for several deep breaths.

A section of wall to her right moved silently aside. Without a word, she turned and ducked through.

"Ah, Meiou-san, good of you to arrive," said an old balding man with a toothy grin. "I was told you are an expert in this field, and I'm glad you were able to make it. Your flight was pleasant?"

"I didn't fly here," said Setsuna Meiou, wondering how much the stereotypical mad scientist-type knew.

"Well, true," said the old man. "Everything checks out that you are who you say you are. Dratted nuisance all the security measures but..."

"Yes, 'Q' - I understand," said Setsuna Meiou. "By the way, what's with the codename?"

"Well, I'm rather fond of the Bond movies," complained "Q" who then added. "Since my birth name is 'Percy' I rather fancy being called 'Q' you know."

"You have something to show me?" asked Setsuna Meiou, wanting to cut to the chase scene as it were.

"Oh this way then," said Q.

Setsuna followed the lanky scientist. "Why in the galaxy did you build a secret facility HERE in a high tourist area?"

"Well, this wasn't intended as a lab to begin with," said Q apologetically as they went down a short stairway. "It was just to be a data coordinating center, located directly in the center of a ring of sensor equipment. When we found IT, this was the most secure location that didn't have some specific department or branch of the government in charge of it. Rather a clumsy arrangement, when you think about it."

"Then that brings us to the question of why contact me," stated Setsuna Meiou.

"Well, yes, alien science and high tech ARE rather my own field of expertise," said the scientist as he came to a wall with a single horizontally-slit window. "Your Silver Millenium items are rather outside that field. Can you tell us what THIS is?"

Setsuna Meiou frowned as she looked over the object that was apparently on the other side of three inches of safety glass and in a biological clean room.

"See, I was figuring that it was some sort of shield generator," said Q. "Form following function no matter what the tech behind it is. And we thought it inert - but there were minor energy reactions to our probes - so it isn't completely dead."

"What kind of reactions?" asked Setsuna Meiou.

"Mainly in the FM range, short pulses in a group of three, with a pause and then another group of three." Q looked in at the device. "So... what exactly is it?"

"That, my dear doctor, is a very good question indeed," said Setsuna Meiou as she peered in at the device. "For I don't recognize it in the slightest."

* * *

It had taken awhile, but things were finally going her way.

Marller watched from afar as the idiot "scientist" (as if someone with stone knives and bearskins could call themselves a scientist) tried to probe her construct.

One of those Senshi was now there. All it would take was -

Dropping the connection as the Senshi in question was looking around as if she'd detected the scrying!

Marller scowled at the now-blank wall. Just when things were getting good too.

* * *

"What do you suppose this will do?"

Senbei smirked. While Senbei would admit he had doubts prior to this, it appeared the Mistress' plan was working. Inside the Millenial-style artifact he waited, the complex set of corrupting instructions ready. Essentially a curse that would latch onto the transformation wand the woman carried, it would then corrupt that device.

What was necessary was that he get close and undetected. So far, so good. She was just outside the furthest range of the curse. All she needed to do was take one step closer.

"I have no idea. You may proceed. It is certainly nothing I recognize though the style is familiar."

"Very well then."

Senbei's grin faltered as the woman stepped further away. What was she-?

An ominous hum built up and then Senbei experienced a burning pain in excess of ANYTHING he'd ever felt - and he was several thousand years old so he'd experienced a fair amount.

"YEOWTCHHHHHH!"

"What the hell?"

"Language, Q."

"Pardon me, Ms. Pluto. But did I just apply a spectrographic laser to an ancient artifact, only to have a six inch high humanoid figure leap out of said artifact - holding his smoking posterior in both hands?"

"Indeed you did, Q. Indeed you did. Some sort of imp or yoma, I'd imagine. When it hit your containment wall, there was an odd sound."

"Hmmm. Oh. Something we've incorporated into a few defenses of late. Experiments with yoma have led to the development of these."

"Is that... a POKEBALL?"

"Well, that was the design we used mainly for it to be distinctive. The 'biohazard' and 'do not open' stickers don't quite fit the image but are necessary. It also doesn't shrink and it's rather large compared to the source."

"You are pokeballing yoma. Q? I do not have words to express how BAD an idea that is."

"Some yoma are quite cooperative. Some are not. United States laws regarding yoma are being yelled about in the Senate you know. So we have to have some way of humanely containing them until such times as such debates have reached a conclusion."

"You are pokeballing yoma."

"There are those who want them to be accorded full human rights as sentient beings whether they cooperate with us or not."

"You are pokeballing yoma."

"Senbei no like this game," said a voice within the 'pokeball' as the debate went on.

* * *

The poster was simple enough, in the manner of countless posters before it. Before that, there had no doubt been banners, and if one went far enough back most likely scratches on walls or something similar.

This particular one was for something that would have been derided as a science fiction prop just a few short months ago. It would have been glanced at and dismissed by fully 95% of those who saw it.

It showed a perky-looking young girl, smiling and saluting, with a futuristic-looking fighter-type aircraft behind her. The words were "The sky is no longer the limit."

The rest of it was contact information for further interest, dealing with a government department that had just been cobbled together in the last month or so.

Of course, if one looked at the last four months - things had changed a bit.

Since then - things had gotten rather bizarre and the old term "Future Shock" had been taken out and dusted off for people who were dealing with the revelations of that time period.

Eleven months ago, the idea of shapeshifting vampiric entities trapped in a subdimensional limbo was considered ludicrous by the public at large.

Eleven months ago, the idea of modern magic-wielding spellcasters fighting such things had been scorned by most of the population.

Barely two months after that, the idea of alien life was still considered to be "that science fictiony stuff" by the masses. Good for a decent special-effects movie, that was all. Alien invasions were considered to be a cheap plot device, period.

Winning against an alien invasion force would be impossible by the thinking of most.

There were still a few corners of the world where all this was still considered trite fantasies.

The rest of the wold was dealing with the new reality.

There were vampiric shapeshifting creatures, most of whom considered humans their rightful prey.  
There were elemental superpowered (?) guardians of humanity who had united to fight said creatures.  
There were aliens. Not all of whom were friendly, one of whom had proclaimed himself to be a god.  
The peoples of Earth had revealed that they knew their broadcasts were being monitored and had developed in secret a method of fighting them and HAD KICKED THEIR COLLECTIVE ASSES.

Yeah, it was a different world. A world in which the school's ROTC program now had a military poster which depicted the United States Spaceship Iowa in front of a depiction of the Earth.

Since the revelations of the vampire-things and Japan having teenage defenders of humanity? Yeah, there was a surge of interest in Japan nowadays too.

Arthur "Art" Clark (no relation) was just one of the roughly seven hundred fifty students at Northwood High School, dealing with grades 10-12. Average grades, average looks (below average in some frequently stated opinions), and a geek/nerd. Which wasn't as much of a social stigma in 1992 as it would have been a decade or two before - but still considered not exactly mainstream or cool.

"Hey Art! Didja hear!"

Arthur looked around, finally locating the speaker in amongst the crowds milling about prior to start of class. "Wassup?"

Jesse Jefferson was enthusiastic. It didn't matter what it was, he believed in giving it his all. Also a pretty good artist who hoped to work for one of the comics companies sometime in the future. Therefore a fellow nerd. "We got testing!"

"Jesse? Why is that a good thing?" asked Arthur. Word of a pop quiz ahead of time? What did he need to brush up on?

"The artifacts man! They brought testing equipment and an artifact!"

"What artifact?"

"Not awake yet this morning, Artie?" Jesse shook his head. "It's one of the Millenial Artifacts, they're looking for reactants."

"You're sure that's not an urban myth?" asked Arthur. _Don't get your hopes up. Even if it turns out to have some truth to it, it wouldn't mean anything._

"No man. They were scheduled for three months from now, but apparently something went wrong and now they're rescheduling everything." Jesse grinned as if he'd won some lottery or something.

"That isn't the important bit!" said one of the female students. Arthur didn't recognize her. "There's going to be an assembly later. One of the pilots from the battle will be speaking to the school!"

"And you're excited about this, why?" asked Jesse, who apparently knew the girl.

"Duh! SHE is one of the pilots who defended Earth against the Goa'uld," said the girl. "I wonder if she's met the Senshi?"

"Well," said Jesse. "Technically she IS a 'senshi' since that just means 'warrior' - do you know what she piloted?"

The girl looked distasteful at the first part but regained enthusiasm with the second. "One of the... F-302s I think it was was called."

"Oh, that's cool," enthused Jesse. "Those are those small space-fighter craft that flew beside the Iowa."

"One of the survivors then," noted Arthur. They'd all seen the reports of the numbers lost. Some because they had run simulators before, but not any actual flight time with the new vehicles. Some had apparently been tested out okay but then lost orientation when in space and in combat situations. Add to that number the losses due to the greater experience in space of their enemy and the fighter losses had been pretty high.

"Well, there's the Excalibur space fighters they're working out now," said Jesse. "I hope we get to see those. I bet they're dipped in awesome-sauce."

"Yeah, well I heard that Lucasfilm wanted a hold put out on them because they looked like 'X-wings' or something," said the girl. "Too bad we couldn't get a senshi though."

"I heard only three of them speak English anyway," offered Jesse. "Come on, they're probably booked solid in Japan."

* * *

"With a warm welcome to Northview High School here in Osaka, we have a crewmember of the Yamato. Welcome, Mori Yuki."

"We wanted a Sailor Senshi!"

Yuki flinched at that response, even if it was a lone person in the audience, but stepped up to the microphone. "I'm afraid the Senshi don't DO public appearances. They're trying to maintain secret identities, so they stay out of interviews and the like."

* * *

Everyone had been assembled outside, expecting that someone in a suit or uniform would come walking up to the podium and give a boring speech in which they said quite a lot about very little. Generalities and trite overused cliches would dominate.

That was how the vast majority of speeches went, with facts dispensed that would have little truth involved.

A few individuals were surprised that this wasn't taking place in the auditorium with a few slides or maybe a short film being involved - just to set things up.

That's what Arthur expected. Maybe to make it different from what everyone was familiar with from the TV they would use footage from the cockpit recorders or something like that.

Four dogs trotted out from various buildings, passing the crowds and looking around the field. Not wandering, more in the manner of they knew where they were going and moving into position.

That was unusual, with a few of the students making abortive moves to go towards or away from the canines but stopped by various security guards.

"What's with the dogs?" asked Jesse, sitting to his left.

"Well trained?" guessed Arthur.

"Up there!"

Glancing in the direction of the yell, Arthur noticed that a few people were pointing now.

A silver dot with a contrail was curving down towards the school. Not a missile though, as missiles did NOT visibly slow.

"It's a SAMAS!" yelled someone in the crowd. A different voice from last time.

"What's that stand for again?" asked Jesse. "Strategic Armored Mechanized Artillery Suit?"

"I thought it was 'Assault Suit'," said Arthur, squinting as he tried to make out details.

The suit came down slowly, going once around the school perimeter, before slowly coming down and settling a little to the right of the podium.

Arthur had to admit that seeing one in person gave an entirely different impression than seeing one on television. The armor gleamed in the sun, the various decals and insignias being the only things that didn't shine in the sun. It LOOKED well armed and armored, but that hadn't mattered in Washington DC when that big robot had attacked.

There was a bit of steam and hiss, then pieces of the armor started retracting.

As predicted, the figure coming out of the armor was female - though at this distance Arthur could only tell because the undersuit worn under the armor was pretty close fitting. Her hair wasn't all that long when she removed the helmet.

The woman got up to the podium and nodded to the principal and other school officials there, cleared her throat and began the obviously prepared speech.

* * *

She'd memorized the speech for this, but there was bound to be interruptions. There always were. This might have been her fourth time giving this speech but by now the Anti-Space groups would have gotten the schedule change and were likely breaking local traffic laws to get their protestors in place.

If she was a bit cynical, well, it WAS her fourth attempt to get through this speech.

"Good afternoon, Northwood High School. I am Captain Tabitha Hwang, United States Air Force. As many of you know, I flew an F-302 in the defense of Earth in a recent battle."

"CGI! Liar! Stop militarizing space!"

Tabitha glanced at the speaker. One of the students and not one of the professional protesters. Who, despite, having SEEN her come flying down in a SAMAS suit was denying the existence of the space battle. At least she wasn't one of the conspiracy nuts currently getting airtime talking about how the entire thing was staged by an administration bent on world conquest or something equally silly.

"This is a SAMAS," said Captain Hwang indicating the gleaming white suit. "This is what I'm flying now. The reason for this is to remind you that even if you don't register as a Positive with a Millenial Artifact or an Ancient Device - you CAN have a place with the new space forces. You CAN contribute both to your own future and to the safety of the world. We have the SAMAS, and we have other suits and mecha in development.

"There is a need for space-capable personnel. Not just soldiers and pilots, not just crew on spaceships and starships."

There was a general murmur at that. Seeing as she hadn't been interrupted, and that when the previous interrupter had been repeatedly hit in the head by the girl behind her - Captain Hwang saw this as a positive development and an encouragement to explain that.

"The difference for those of you interested is that a spaceship is designed for near-Earth destinations. Usually smaller, less complicated, and has a specific single purpose it is designed for. Examples would be shuttles, what we call a work-bee, or even some of the space-tugs we've got in development. By the time many of you have graduated, some of those vehicles will be in active use.

"Starships, on the other hand, are intended for tasks that are very far away. Greater demands on life-support, supplies, and tend to be much bigger with more crew. The Iowa is one such and the USS Enterprise will be another when it finishes construction."

Tabitha Hwang noticed those who'd reacted to that, nodded her head in recognition of the geeks among them, and continued.

"We will need personnel of ALL kinds in space, save one," continued Captain Hwang. "If you are easily distracted, frequently clumsy, forget little details, like to ignore safety rules? Please. Do NOT go into space. Space is not a forgiving environment. Forgetting to properly dog a hatch or check your suit is very likely to be fatal and quite often to more than just yourself. There are plenty of what we call 'dirtside' jobs that will be available. There will eventually be completely civilian jobs that may not require you to be obsessive-compulsive in the safety department. That time is not now."

"AND THE TIME IS NOT NOW FOR YOUR LIES!" yelled a voice.

Captain Hwang bit back a swearword. The protestors had arrived, with bullhorn, and a TV crew behind them.

And it had been going so well too.

* * *

The prepared speech had obviously gone straight into the shredder.

"You know, I kinda lost interest in those protest groups when I saw 'em running around on the TV protesting about pollution in the space environment," said Jesse, grumping a bit and slouching in his sheet.

"Like, those Near-Earth debris fields ARE totally a problem!" protested a girl nearby as she turned to glare at them. "And who knows what, like, one of those alien drive systems will do when they run into something!"

Arthur sighed. He didn't want to get drawn into it, but not saying ANYTHING would be taken as agreement. It was all entirely too troublesome.

"And having those alien ships come and crush us like bugs would be WAY less a problem?" asked Jesse.

"We only have a single broadcast and that could have been a bad translator," said the girl. "We should, like, totally open a dialog!"

Jesse stared at her for a moment. "Yeah. Right. Bad translator."

"Better than dealing with a LITERAL war machine," said the girl rolling her eyes and turning away from the obvious infidel.

"Did she just diss the BOLO?" asked Jesse.

"I wasn't paying attention," lied Arthur.

The protestors were shouting insults at the Captain, who ignored them and simply shook her head and went back to her SAMAS. She even ignored them when one took out a spray can and began shaking it.

"Think she deliberately knocked him over with the launch exhaust?" asked Arthur a minute later.

Jesse grinned. "No. Wish I had a recording."

"That bully! She could have hurt that guy!"

Jesse made a face at the girl from earlier who'd just shouted towards the podium.

The school president finally got up to the podium. "Anyone wanting to test for reaction to the Millenial Artifact, please head to the auditorium."

* * *

The press had been turned away at the door. The line had been fairly long, every student given just a few moments to walk into the room and go past three weird objects that were spaced out on tables.

Both the objects and the doors were all guarded by large individuals who looked like they were more than ready to break legs if anyone spent too long or tried to take one of those things with them.

Arthur looked them over, one at a time, when his turn had come up.

The first was a metal and crystal donut that responded to his touch by growing warm and having a shifting light appear in the blue crystal seam that ran around the inside.

The second was a cube of some unfamiliar substance. Arthur couldn't decide if it was dull metal or plastic. Whatever it was, it didn't react to him at all.

Finally there was a little metal bell on a string that chimed once when he'd started reaching out for it.

A woman in uniform checked her clipboard. "Arthur Clarence Clark?"

"Yes, ma'am," said Arthur, deciding the woman looked stressed enough.

"Double reactive, that's rare and useful," noted the woman. "Someone will be contacting you soon. Any particular science or profession you're looking at?"

"Uhm, I was kinda keeping my options open," confessed Arthur. "I don't even know what I'm good at yet."

"We have a set of aptitude tests you can take," said the woman. "I'll pencil you in for that. Best to choose a field that interests you."

"Uhm. You said 'double reactive'? Does that mean that they're not all Millenial artifacts?" asked Arthur.

"Sorry. Classified. Go through the far door and back to your regular class for now," said the woman.

"Next," said the woman as he left.

* * *

"She said 'Double Reactive'?" asked Jesse. "What's that mean?"

"She said 'classified' - so I don't know," said Arthur. He shrugged after a moment. "Didn't sound like it was a BAD thing."

"If it's really classified you probably shouldn't be talking about it," pointed out Jesse. "You may not have signed any papers but that'd affect your job chances down the road."

"I don't even know if I want to be in space," said Arthur. "Yeah, it's cool and all, but that don't get around that it's just plain an unforgiving environment. You join the Navy or Coast Guard and fall overboard, there's a chance you'll live. Air Force - they got those ejection seats for a reason. Space?"

"Yeah, they got space suits and such for a reason too." Jesse started moving his hands around, a clear sign for anyone who knew him how agitated he was getting. "You notice that Captain? That suit she was wearing to pilot the SAMAS?"

"I think every guy in this school, except Alfonso, noticed," agreed Arthur. "You aren't saying THAT was her spacesuit?"

"Wouldn't be surprised at all," said Jesse. "That SAMAS - supposedly it was built with tech we got from the BOLO. The same kinda thing that Popular Mechanics was talking about for doing artificial limbs. I counted three things she unhooked from the suit to the SAMAS when she was getting out. What you suppose they did?"

"Yeah? I thought it was just some kind of gel. You know, to pad and give some protection from impacts."

"Probably," said Jesse. "One of them at least. Maybe some sorta coolant too. Gotta get hot in them things."

"They go in space, I'd expect something to keep 'em from freezing their buttocks off." Arthur considered. "That's two. You saw three?"

"Yup, one nozzle here," Jesse indicated just along the ribs and to the side. "One here in the back."

"I noticed that one. It was like the suit moved the hook-up to make it easier for her," mused Arthur.

"The third one was here, smaller one," said Jesse, indicating the outer right thigh.

"Telemetry maybe?" asked Arthur. "Isn't that what they do with fighter pilots in regular jets?"

"Maybe, I can check that later," agreed Jesse. "That ain't counting the helmet. I... oh. Teacher's back."

* * *

"Nav, confirm spatial coordinates."

"Coordinates confirm, aye."

"Helm confirms coordinates and course set."

"All lights are green for go."

Captain Tennant nodded, his eyes sweeping the various displays for anything that wasn't right. "Go."

Helmsman Piper took a deep breath, reached out and flicked a switch on the console. "General Quarters! General Quarters! All hands prepare for shortrange hyperspatial jump in fifteen seconds. All hands secure positions. Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one."

Energy flared as the generators reached out with high-energy gamma rays, flexing space/time.

"Why does that always make my stomach queasy?" asked Captain Tennant as the HMS Hood reappeared in normal space.

"Because we just went from normal space and matter, to existing in a flow of higher order energies and then back again?" asked Helmsman Piper, her accent coming in sufficiently strong to indicate that she was feeling a bit stressed out.

"Because we just travelled from near-Earth orbit to Jupiter, in perhaps a minute's time?" asked Doctor Agyeman from her own position.

"Maybe because we're way too close to that floaty-castle thing?" asked Minako Aino, pointing.

"Castle Io, Miss Aino," pointed out Helmsman Piper. "Why is she on the bridge anyway?"

"She's actually here as a specialist regarding that very castle," noted Captain Tennant.

"But she can't even get the bluidy name right," pointed out Helmsman Second Class Billie Piper.

"Now now, helm," said the Navigator. "It's all classified as above our paygrade. It might be just an act."

"Unlikely. Nobody's that good an actor."

"Stressed a bit, are we, Helmsman?" asked the Captain.

"Other than we're less than a thousand kilometers from a castle floating in space whose energy tap is the planet Jupiter and which has energy discharge capabilities that I'm told could go through our shields and reduce us all to a mist of charged particles," stated Helmsman Piper, "there's also that the specialist in charge of seeing we don't get targetted as intruders wasn't briefed on any of this and is a Japanese schoolgirl. Of course there's not a single problem with any of that."

"You know," said Captain Tennant. "That's exactly the sort of negative attitude that bounces you back to Helmsman Second Class every time you merit a shift to First."

"Miss Aino? Do you require me to open a channel to the castle?" Communications wanted to know. Also what frequency and codewords might be needed.

"Hmmm?" asked a distracted Minako. "Oh sorry. I was talking to the castle."

"What?" asked Helmsman Piper. There was a few seconds as she gaped at the aforementioned Japanese schoolgirl.

"Ah," said Navigator First Class Amara Karan. "She's a high-level reactive to Millenial Artifacts."

"Whot? Her?!" asked Helmsman Piper, though after the initial shock she realized that made everything click into place. She and several others (including Amara) were all rated as low-level Millenial reactives. It was even on their military identity cards though it was just an odd symbol. Since they were listed as low-level, it followed (and there was much speculation about) medium and high-level reactives.

"Now now, someone's reactive level is all classified you know," said Captain Tennant. "Even that there ARE levels isn't to be bandied about."

"You really think any of this can remain secret what with testing civilians and all?" asked Navigator Karan.

"Actually, no," admitted Captain Tennant. "However, if you're very bad, I've been authorized to threaten such individuals with transfer to Captain Barrowman's ship."

"HIM? Captain Grabbyhands? I think not," said Helmsman Piper.

"Io says it's good to go, Captain Tennant sir," said the chipper Japanese girl. "Your ship has been recognized as an allied spacecraft. She just requests that you don't come within five hundred meters. She seems a bit twitchy with all the traffic today."

"Oh?" asked the Captain. "I wasn't aware there was a lot of 'traffic' out here. Anything we should be on the look for?"

"A cloaked Asgard ship, but it started moving out-system as soon as the castles started waking up," said Minako, listening to something only she could hear. "Apparently it's trying to find a spot out of the way in the Oort Cloud right now. Sailor Mercury is currently in the Mercury Tornado, currently a little over five thousand miles away. Oh, that's just next door."

"Well, yes, I suppose one must redefine 'next door' when one is dealing with our current speeds and distances from Earth," said Captain Tennant. "Takes a bit of getting used to."

"There's a bluidy lot of this takes a bit of getting used to," said Helmsman Piper.

"Right, Helm, now set course towards our stationkeeping point, will you?" asked the captain. "This'll be a long term duty, so I do hope everyone's packed their toothbrushes."

"Uhm."

"With the exception of Miss Aino there, who will be picked up later in the day by Sailor Mercury," said Captain Tennant.

"Oi, you think you can get me an autograph?" asked Helmsman Piper.

"Of Sailor Mercury? Uhm, yes, I guess," said a startled Minako.

"Oh, that'd be right smashing. She's not Sailor V, of course, but that's something for me nephew."

"Oh?" asked Minako. "You like Sailor V?"

"Now now, don't be bothering the mission specialists for autographs. We're here on business after all," chided the CO.

"I don't mind," said Minako.

* * *

_Flashback:_

"I see, so she was just found patrolling..."

"Sir?"

When he spoke next, his eyes were glowing and his voice had dropped into a more commanding and inhuman mode. "What kind of joke is this?"

"Sir?" asked the henchman.

"Readying electromagnetic pulse. Discharging."

"What?!" It was hard to sound confused and off-balance while using one's Goa'uld voice. He managed.

_Ka-klik!_

"Hi there. My name is Captain Jim Butcher. You can call me by my nickname of 'sir' just 'cause I like you. Did you happen to hear about our Cinder Spire facility? You're just gonna love it."

"You dare address Seth with such a tone?!"

"I'm wearing a respirator and am heavily armed. In addition - Miss KOS-MOS, if you would demonstrate?"

_Zum! Klak!_

Seth pursed his lips at the zak'niktel in the construct's hands. "I see. You make a - persuasive argument."

* * *

_Now:_

He disliked coming here. It was a number of factors, but at least one of which was that there always seemed to be bad news waiting for him the moment he got off the elevator.

"Sir, there was a lawsuit filed on behalf of a Mister Stan Lee."

"Damnit. The SAMAS is NOT an Iron Man suit and he can NOT sue us for the idea."

"Problems?" asked Seth, not looking up from his magazine.

"Quite a few," said Colonel Maybourne, rolling a chair over. "Now, I have a few questions."

"You do realize I've been trapped on Earth for quite some time, and any information I've got is severely dated."

"Oh, that part I understand," said Colonel Maybourne. "What I've got is a deal to be made."

"Oh?" asked Seth, putting the magazine aside. "That sounds rather more interesting than this. Do tell me more."

* * *

"Captain's Log. January 4, 1999. We are still on station-keeping duty overseeing the construction of the Babylon space station in an outer orbit of Jupiter. Construction of the magnetic deflection array to keep survivable radiation levels within the zone has been completed and is active. I'm told when the whole she-bang is completed, that the radiation levels on the station will be comparable to those at a Glasgow pub. Why that comparison, I'm not entirely sure other than the construction chief has apparently been pining for a cold Guiness for the last four months.

"The Hood's radiation shields are doing quite nicely, by the way. Our physician has been monitoring the crew that work on the hull or outer layers here as we do upgrades, she reports no problems thus far.

"Rather boring really. Honestly though - world could use a touch of boring every so often. All the running about in all directions as things go to pot may be a bit more exciting, but we need periods of relative calm so as to catch up on everything.

"Had to let one of our crew go back with the last mail run. Ensign Hardaway started to show signs of being cooped up a bit too long between crew cycles. Touch of claustrophobia that didn't show up on the psych evals prior to posting. Bad bit of business that. Going to have to recommend that in future long-term missions, we have a better schedule for cycling the crew off and on.

"Also we'll need better air scrubbers. Already fired off a quick notation to the engineers back on Earth. Several areas getting a bit whiffy. Also screen personnel for any digestive difficulties as per previous log and the need to put Ensign Mbombo back on Earth due to his lactose intolerance. As a side note, further thanks to Captain Hornblower of the _USS Constellation_ for his dropping by of those little cans of neutral-scent air purifiers. I've made sure to note to our Supplies Officer to get a case whenever we're in port.

"Today we're getting a load of the improved 'Work Bee' units, which are from a German company. Thing looks like a blast to be able to fly around in, long as the radiation levels aren't too high and no little asteroids or space junk tears into your life support. Problem with the previous British-made one was the four-hour operations life. Honestly, what was someone thinking with that? Four hours operation then six to get it ready again?

"Of more pressing concern, I'm appending our Chief Engineer's report on the latest upgrade to the F-302. While bigger guns are appreciated, the cooling system has an entirely unacceptable failure rate. Just a reminder to our most lovely weapons designers, if the gun stops shooting for any reason it becomes a very large paperweight. And weight or more properly 'mass' matters when one is managing fuel and the like, thank you very much. Yes, even in space.

"Captain David Tennant, _HMS Hood._ On station at Jupiter."

* * *

"That's IT?" asked Seth. "You seriously want me to believe that's all you want?"

"Believe it or not, yes," said Colonel Maybourne. "Our research and manufacturing capacities are pretty much full. Have you actually read any of those magazines?"

"A few," said Seth.

"Then you know we have riots dealing with alien technology," said Maybourne. "We have protestors demanding access to new tech. We have terrorists who we believe are actually on government payrolls who are trying to get ahold of alien technology from the governments that have it. We just had a hostage crisis in Japan where some radical group tried to get Silver Millenial artifacts from their government."

"Was it successful?" asked Seth, calmly reaching for a cup of tea.

"I did say 'tried'," said Maybourne. He was silent a moment, apparently contemplating the ceiling.

"Ah, so you did," said Seth to fill that silence. "So? My part of it is my freedom, and my word that I take myself far from any conflict with your world and forces?"

"Your word as a Goa'uld is admittedly not quite reassuring," admitted Maybourne. "However, in any high stakes game - there are always risks. Someone high above me in the chain of command has apparently decided that compared to many of the other Goa-uld -you are an acceptable risk."

"Ah, and you don't?" asked Seth easily, taking a sip of his tea.

"I've met worse, I've worked with worse," said Maybourne.

"You've killed worse," guessed Seth.

"That too," said Maybourne.

* * *

"What do you really think, sir?" asked the aide.

"When he was stuck on Earth, what did he do?" asked Maybourne as the elevator went up the shaft. "He did a bunch of little cults with lotus-eaters, harems, and a few thugs. I was completely honest. I've met worse. Trust him? Absolutely not. Can we use him and him us to our mutual satisfaction? Quite possibly."

The aide was silent for a moment. "That last sounded VERY weird sir."

"True, hadn't meant it quite like that," admitted Maybourne as the elevator doors opened.

"What next?" asked the aide, checking her stylus. "There's a meeting at 0200, though that's secured encrypted video so it can be done from the jet."

"Double check the security on that will you?" Maybourne glanced to the side as they went through the park. "Tower Of The Americas. There's a Chart House restaurant on top."

"Way overpriced sir," said the aide. "There's some cheaper fare closer to the Alamo."

"On second thought, let's just get to the jet," said Maybourne. "I just thought of someone I want to send an encoded anonymous message to."

* * *

He gathered it, the energy folding in upon itself to become a concentrated sphere the rough size of a baseball.

Hotaru cocked her head as she regarded it. "I thought you were going to work on something to deal with airborne targets."

Ranma felt muscles in his arms quiver and forced them to stop through sheer will. "I have been. This is it."

Hotaru turned her attention back to the sphere. "This is your 'ki' and that other energy?"

"Yeah," said Ranma, who then turned and threw the ball.

As soon as it left his hand it expanded into a javelin shape. When it hit the mountain, it exploded.

"Uhm," began Hotaru. Frankly, she'd expected a bit more.

"Still a work in progress," said Ranma as he noted the tiny crater in the rock. He could do a lot more damage up close, but the main trick here was keeping everything together - stable enough to make the trip and unstable enough to blow up when it got to the target.

"Ah," said Hotaru, accepting that.

"So what's the occasion? You normally don't come out this far from the camp," asked Ranma. "Not while I'm trying to blow stuff up at least."

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES: It appears that Kender is no longer with us. Either he's given up on writing, or - as TV Tropes would put it - Author Existence Failure.

Which is not the first time this has happened to me, for those who remember Celeste.

It'll make updating this story a bit more difficult as Anime Addventure is currently having severe problems with an apparent virus attack from one of the trolls currently hanging around over there - and this story is complicated enough (and huge enough) that i may end up having some problems with future plotting. Heck, just trying not to keep from contradicting previous things in the story is going to be a major work.

But the story has not been abandoned as of now, and i'm getting to it as i can.

thank you for your patience.


End file.
